Operation Teamwork
by lucymiddleton
Summary: Dumbledore sets the returning eighth years a challenge: they are put into teams and compete against each other in a variety of wizarding and muggle challenges for a prize. DRAMIONE
1. Chapter 1

**Operation Teamwork  
**

Chapter One

This year had been uneventful, thought Hermione as she stirred her tea aimlessly. Her and the majority of the rest of the year had returned to Hogwarts after the great war to finish their education, but half of the way into the year they had already completed their courses, and whilst Hermione believed absolutely in the need to revise to consolidate knowledge, there was only a certain amount one could take before going absolutely batty.

She sat beside Ron at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, Ron inhaling food as messily as ever. Across from Hermione, Harry and Dean were having a passionate conversation about Quidditch, with wild gestures and raised voices suggesting it was an argument. Ron opened his mouth to join in, and Hermione wrinkled her nose in disgust as a piece of chewed up toast fell out. Whilst she and Ron had been friends for years, and had even dated for a while (broken off by Hermione as she felt, and Ron had agreed, that they just weren't a good match and it would be better to be friends), she did wish he wouldn't eat in such a revolting way.

Averting her eyes from the scene of Ron and his mangled breakfast, Hermione found herself looking towards the small band of eighth years seated at the Slytherin table. Not many had returned to Hogwarts after the war, preferring to stay loyal to their death eater parents despite the risk of imprisonment and the gracious offer from Dumbledore that all could be forgiven if they returned to school and tried to turn over a new leaf. Of those who had returned, nothing was more surprising by the fact that Draco Malfoy was among them. He sat between Blaise Zabini and Theo Nott, his two best friends after Crabbe and Goyle had not returned to the school, and opposite them sat Daphne Greengrass, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode.

One of the reasons it had been so quiet this year, Hermione realised, was that the Slytherins had caused hardly any trouble. Whilst of course they hadn't actually been friendly, aside from a few snarky comments on the usual things such as blood status and schoolwork, they hadn't done anything that could even be classed as nasty, let alone the evil behaviour that the rest of the school were used to.

She frowned slightly, trying to work out what on earth they were up to, when Professor Dumbledore stood up from his seat to make an announcement. He cleared his throat, and performed a voice loudening charm on himself before starting.

"Attention please students. I have a few announcements. First of all, I would like to inform you that from now on Portable Swamps made by Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes are banned from use inside the building at request from Mr Filch."

A collective groan came from the room, Harry and Ron among them. "Stupid Filch. Never could see the fun side of things," muttered Ron, his mouth empty for once.

"Secondly," Dumbledore's voice spoke over the muttering, "This weekend there will be a trip to Hogsmeade for the third year to the seventh year. Please remember that you cannot go without a permission slip signed by your guardians, and you must be in groups of four when leaving the building and in those same groups when returning."

Dumbledore continued to set out the rules as the eighth years glanced at each other in dismay. "What? Why aren't eight years allowed to go?" harry exclaimed, turning to Hermione. "I don't know." she replied. "Its probably a course or something. How disappointing, I was hoping to get the next book in the series I've been reading, Transfiguration through the Ages. It's terribly interesting, outlines the progress of transfiguration throughout history. I've just finished the volume on Medieval Transformation."

"Of course you'd be disappointed about not being able to buy a book." Parvati rolled her eyes. "I was hoping to get the latest Weird Sister's album. And I need a new lipgloss. This is a disaster!"

Thankfully for Hermione, who did not want to listen to Parvati moaning about her lack of lipgloss, Dumbledore's voice came booming over the disappointed chatter.

"That bring me on to my last announcement. I can tell from the level of noise in the room that the eighth years are disappointed as to the fact they will be unable to visit Hogsmeade this coming weekend, or, as a matter of fact, until the end of term."

Harry Ron and Hermione cast dismayed looks at each other. Until the end of term! What could possibly be the reason for this?

"This is due to the fact that is come to the staffs attention that most students in the year group have in fact completed the N.E.W.T. course that they are here to finish and take exams in. Therefore, we feel it necessary to disband normal lessons in favour of what we are calling 'Operation Teamwork'. We will brief you in more detail later, but to summarize, this is a project that will involve all eighth years leaving Hogwarts to live in the outside world for the remainder of this term in groups of four. Each team will compete against three other teams in a variety of challenges, some involving magic and some not, for a prize."

The eighth years began to whisper excitedly. A prize? No more lessons? This sounded really good!

"Now, without further interruption to breakfast, could I ask all eighth years to meet with myself and some of the other staff for more details and to be assigned groups and locations. The meeting place will be the unused Charms classroom on the left corridor in the east wing, as it is the only room big enough to accommodate all four houses. Enjoy your meals." Dumbledore smiled before sitting back down.

Hermione turned excitedly to Ron and Harry. "Doesn't this sound amazing!" They grinned back. "I wonder what the prize is," said Ron. "Well, we'll find out in a few minutes. Are you guys finished eating. I need to go back to the common room to collect my Arithmancy book."

Ron groaned. "Did you not hear Dumbledore Hermione? There are no more classes."

"I know, Ronald, but I think it would be beneficial to get in some last minute revision before all that goes out the window for this 'Operation teamwork'." Hermione said, standing up. Spotting Ginny about to leave the hall, she called her name. "Ginny! Are you going back to the common room? I'll come with you." As she went to follow Ginny, she turned back to the boys, and smiled. "I'll see you later."

As Hermione caught up with Ginny, the girl grinned at her. "I'm going to miss you guys so much. They better let my year do something like this, it sounds interesting."

Little did Hermione know how interesting it was about to become.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

As Hermione walked into the Charms classroom, she could here the excited chatter. Spotting Harry and Ron with the other Gryffindors on the opposite side of the room, she waved at the and began to weave her way through the desks over to them. As she made her way towards them, something hit her arm, and she looked round to see Malfoy smirking at her, the Slytherin surrounding him laughing loudly. Glaring back, she sat down beside Lavender, who smiled sympathetically at her. "What a prat," she said. "Although his good looks do sort of make up for it," she giggled, and Parvati, who was sitting on her other side, agreed.

Turning to look back at Malfoy, Hermione frowned, as she realised they were sort of right. He had grown into his height, filling out into a tall, muscular young man. His eyes, which used to be sort of bulgy, had settled into his face, and the smouldering silver colour was rather enticing. His platinum blonde hair was ruffled into a sexy half-quiff.

Not sexy. Hermione shook herself. Malfoy would always be a ferret. And he was most certainly not sexy. Not even a little.

As she tried to convince her self of this, Dumbledore walked into the room, followed by some other professors, including McGonagall, and to Hermione's dismay, Snape. Clapping his hands, Professor Dumbledore, brought the students attention to himself.

"Students, students. Thank you for all joining me here, where I can begin to explain exactly what is going to commence in the next few weeks. You will be placed in teams of four, which Professor McGonagall will read out in a moment. These groups are non-negotiable, as they have been picked by myself, Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape in order to really test your teamwork."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, stricken. There was no way they were going to be put together, being the famous golden trio. They would most likely be shoved with people they didn't even know very well, or liked. Hermione sighed. Perhaps this wasn't going to be as much fun after all.

Dumbledore continued his explanation. "Each team will compete against two other teams for the prize, which will be 500 galleons for each member and a week long holiday for the whole team in their chosen location. Each competition of three teams will be supervised by two members of staff/ other adult. Each competition will take place in a different place although all will be in the United Kingdom. I would now like to invite Professor McGonagall to read out the groups, their locations and their supervisors."

He smiled at Professor McGonagall, who stepped forward, producing a scroll from here pocket.

"Ahem. Listen up please.

Competition 1 Group A:

Neville Longbottom,

Hannah Abbott,

Michael Corner and

Tracey Davis.

Competition 1 Group B:

Mandy Brocklehurst

Lavender Brown

Wayne Hopkins and

Anthony Goldstein

Competition 1 Group C:

Padma Patil

Kevin Entwhistle

Susan Bones and

Dean Thomas

Competition 1 will be supervised by Professor Snape and Professor Sprout. You will be located in Edinburgh, staying at the Carlton Hotel. Please follow Professor Snape into the next classroom where you will be briefed further on what to pack and what to expect."

The students whose names had been called stood and followed Snape out of the room, chatting excitedly amongst each other. Hermione breathed a sigh of relief, glad that she hadn't been separated from her friends just yet.

McGonagall continued to read out groups until most of the students had left the classroom.

"Now onto the last competition, Competition 4.

Competition 4 Group A:

Ron Weasley

Eloise Midgen

Luna Lovegood and

Terry Boot"

Hermione smiled encouragingly at Ron. It wasn't a bad group, in fact it was pretty good. Eloise was shy, but would be a great help if anything musical came up. Luna knew the bizarrest facts and she and Ron were friendly, and Terry was extremely clever, being a Ravenclaw.

"Competition 4 Group B:

Parvati Patil

Theodore Nott

Pansy Parkinson and

Harry Potter"

As the names were read out Hermione felt a feeling of dread creep into her stomach. Grimacing sympathetically at Harry for being stuck with Parkinson and Nott, she tried to work her way through who could be left.

The feeling of dread turned to full blown horror.

She couldn't. There was no way McGonagall would be that cruel. Would she?

"Competition 4 Group C:

Blaise Zabini

Daphne Greengrass

Draco Malfoy and

Hermione Granger"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Ron and Harry were looking at her sympathetically, but Hermione still hadn't quite managed to process the fact that she was stuck with the ferret and half of his gang.

"Hermione I feel so sorry for you. How awful." Eloise whispered.

"Yeah, those prats are the worst. How could they do this to you?" Ron exclaimed, less quietly.

McGonagall looked at him sharply. "That's quite enough Mr Weasley. Let me remind you that this is an exercise designed to improve teamwork and house unity and that these teams are absolutely non-negotiable."

Hermione sighed quietly, resigning herself to a month of torture. There was absolutely no arguing with McGonagall. Sneaking a glance at the Slytherins, she found herself looking straight at Malfoy, who was smirking in a way that made her shudder.

"Listen, please. Professor Lockhart, who has returned to the school to help especially with this challenge, and myself, shall supervise you. We are to be based in London, and we will be staying at The Ritz, which is an extremely expensive hotel, and therefore I expect you all to be on your best behaviour at all times. Let me remind you that you are not only representing yourselves, you are representing the school, and misconduct will not be taken lightly. Now, before I give you some more details, I would like you tom please go and sit with your teammates. You will be spending a lot of time with them from now on, so take this chance to get well acquainted before the competition begins."

Hermione looked over at the Slytherins apprehensively. Parkinson and Nott had already moved to sulkily to sit with Harry and Parvati, and Zabini, Greengrass and Malfoy were already grinning at her, much like a wolf would grin at its prey.

Gulping, she walked over, head held high to prove that they didn't scare her.

"Zabini. Greengrass." She nodded at them and they nodded back. "Malfoy." She said glaring at him, before taking a seat.

"Granger." was all he said before turning to the others. "Listen up. I want to win. There is no way we are letting Wonder boy Potter or the Weasel beat us at this. And that means everyone has to be involved." Malfoy rounded on Hermione. She stared back, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you sure you want to talk to me Malfoy? You might catch the cooties." She said snarkily.

"For goodness sake Mud…Granger. Be a little mature for once. I know it's hard for you, but I want to win, and therefore you need to participate."

"Excuse me, ferret, but I certainly do not. I'm not going to do anything because you say so." Hermione glared at him. How dare he!

"I think you're forgetting something mudblood. This is effectively a class. There is no way you of all people are going to forfeit a class just because of me. I know I'm extremely important to you, but please don't give up your perfect record just for me."

Zabini and Greengrass laughed, and Malfoy smirked even more when he saw the expression on Hermione's face, knowing he had gotten to her.

"Fuck off Malfoy. Don't you ever call me that again," she said deadly quietly, before turning away from him.

His mouth fell open in surprise and Zabini chuckled beside him. "I think you've got your hands full mate."

Just then McGonagall clapped her hands. "I think you've had enough time to introduce yourselves, and I am now going to send you to pack. Please only bring what is absolutely necessary. A few sets of robes will be enough, as you will all be given wardrobes when we arrive that will produce muggle clothes of your size and style. For the duration of this project you will be asked to only wear muggle clothing when in public, and it is also recommended in private. You have an hour to pack all you need, and we will meet back here. Off you go."

Hermione put her hand in the air, a question popping into her mind. "Professor, what should we do with our pets?" she asked.

"Owls will be left in the owlery, where they will be well cared for. Professor Dumbledore has arranged for all toads to be looked after by Professor Hagrid. However, if you have a cat you are permitted to take it with you, if the rest of your team are in agreeance."

Hermione slumped. There was no way Malfoy was going to agree to Crookshanks accompanying their team. Nevertheless she was going to try. There was no way Hermione Granger was going to go down without a fight.

Holding her head high, she turned to face the rest of her team. "Would it be alright with you all if I brought my cat, Crookshanks along with us? I would prefer to do that, although I can ask Ginny to look after him if you object."

Preparing herself for a fight, Hermione was shocked by the words that left Malfoy's mouth next. "Sure, whatever. I doubt the she-weasel could look after her properly anyway. Daphne has a cat as well."

Daphne smiled at her, and Hermione found herself smiling back, slightly confused.

"I… ok." she said. "Mudblood, I think the words you are looking for are thank you." Malfoy smirked, happy to have dislodged Hermione.

The next thing he knew, he was reeling backwards as her hand came cracking down across his face. The sound of the slap rung around the room, leaving silence in its wake.

"I told you to never call me that again," is all Hermione said, before standing up and walking straight out of the room. Hearing a small sob from the corridor, Harry and Ron followed her quickly. She had almost got to the Gryffindor common room by the time they caught up with her.

"Hermione! Hey, 'Mione." Harry slung an arm around her shoulders. "Don't listen to him. Whatever he said, it's not true. He's just a fucking prat."

Ron nodded, and gave the password to the fat lady, who gave Hermione a sympathetic look before swinging open the portrait hole.

"I'm not upset, I'm just so angry! Why does he think he has the right to speak to me like that! Urgh!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air as she climbed through the entrance to the common room. "And now I have to spend the rest of the year with him and his stupid cronies! Why? Why would McGonagall do this to me!" Hermione went off into a rant as she stormed up to her dormitory.

Fuming, she threw clothes and toiletries into a suitcase. One thing was for sure. Malfoy was in for a big surprise if he thought that Hermione Granger was going to be any kind of cooperative. It didn't matter if this was a class. For Hermione, this was war.

A smirk formed on her face as a plan formed in her mind.

Malfoy was going down.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Pulling her small suitcase behind her and carrying Crookshanks in her arms, Hermione entered the charms classroom. Daphne Greengrass sat at her teams table, but to Hermione's relief she was the only on there. Walking over, she placed her suitcase beside her before sitting down. Crookshanks curled up in her lap.

The two of them sat in silence for what seemed like an age. Finally Daphne turned to look at Hermione, breaking the stony quiet.

"You know, he's not that bad."

Hermione looked at her like she was mad.

"I know he acts like a prick, but really he's just a normal teenage boy."

Hermione snorted. Malfoy, a normal teenage boy? Yeah right. He was a psycho.

"Look, what I'm trying to say is that I don't have anything against you. My family aren't like the others; I have nothing to conform to. In fact, if I'm honest, I'd quite like to be your friend. You're smart, down to earth and pretty. If I didn't know Draco would kill me, I would say that maybe he had a little crush on you. I mean, he talks about you and Potter an awful lot."

Hermione frowned. "What? How on earth could you think Malfoy liked me? That's… that's…"

"Honestly Hermione, as the smartest witch in the school, I'd expect you to have some insight." Daphne smiled knowingly, just as Malfoy and Zabini walked in. Zabini sat himself down next to Hermione, and Malfoy found himself glaring at his best friend. Frowning, he quickly turned his glare on Hermione, but not before the other two Slytherins could spot it, and shared a knowing smirk.

"I brought your bloody cat for you Daph." Malfoy announced, plonking a green pet carrier on the table. "Though I honestly have no idea why you like it so much. That thing is evil."

"Aww don't be like that Draco. You know you love him really." Daphne grinned, opening the door of the carrier to reveal a smoky grey cat. "Hermione, if you put your cat on the table they can meet each other. It's a boy isn't it?"

Malfoy's eyebrows shot up at Daphne's use of the Gryffindor's first name and muttered something to Zabini. The other boy just smirked, glancing at Hermione.

Daphne was smiling encouragingly at her, and so Hermione smiled back and placed the ginger tomcat on the table gently. "Yes, he's a boy. His name is Crookshanks."

"Mine's called Graymalkin. He was a present from my brother."

The two cats regarded each other warily as Graymalkin emerged from the pet carrier. They walked forwards slowly, until their noses were almost touching. Then, Crookshanks, pawed the floor playfully, and the two began playing.

Hermione let out a breath she didn't even know she had been holding. Glancing around the group, she saw Daphne beaming. Zabini was looking at Malfoy, and when she looked over at him, she saw that he was looking at her. He saw her looking, and quickly turned his stare into a glare.

Zabini sighed. "This is ridiculous. Granger, Draco mate, if we want to win this thing, for all of us," he looked pointedly at Malfoy "we are going to have to work together. Daph has already taken the first step, but I propose a temporary truce."

Both her and Malfoy's heads whipped round to stare at him incredulously.

"Oh don't look at me like that. Granger, to be perfectly honest, we need your help to win. You're not called the smartest witch in the school for nothing. And Draco, you really need to get over this stupid grudge. Anyone with eyes can tell that you have a cru-"

In a flurry of movement Malfoy had cast a silencio charm on Zabini, which caused both him and Daphne to smirk knowingly yet again.

"Okay. I get the point. We can have a temporary truce. Temporary. And Blaise, if I release you from the charm, I take it you won't say anything that will make me need to put it back on?"

Zabini nodded vigorously, still smirking slightly. With a flick of his wand, Malfoy released his best friend from the silencing charm.

Hermione nodded slowly. "A truce. I think I can agree to that," she said stiffly to Malfoy. Turning to face Daphne and Zabini, she smiled, directing her next comment at them. "But please, if we're going to be working together, call me Hermione."

They smiled back warmly at her. "Of course. Call me Daphne," the Slytherin girl said. "It's Blaise." Blaise grinned.

Malfoy said nothing.

Just then, professor McGonagall clapped her hands. "Students! I take it you have all packed, so now I ask you to the portkey that will transport us to London. Make sure you have all your possessions with you, as we will not be coming back to school for the rest of the term. All your mail will be forwarded to the hotel, but through the muggle postal system so as not to look suspicious."

As the students got up to follow her, there was a loud bang from the fireplace and Gilderoy Lockhart emerged, covered in soot and coughing rather violently. The students froze, not entirely sure what to make of his appearance. There had been much discussion as to what state of mind Dumbledore had been in when asking him back to the school, as the last anyone had seen of him, he was a patient in St Mungo's, being treated for memory loss.

Now he was standing in the middle of their charms classroom covered in soot, apparently there to help out with 'Operation Friendship'.

"Hello hello. I see you are all waiting for me and my charming personality and handsome good looks. I thank you all. Any of you who want autographs, see me after." Lockhart grinned, before winking as he swept out.

His speech was met with a stunned silence, before everyone, even the Slytherin's burst out laughing.

"Well, this is going to be very interesting." Ron chuckled to Luna.

"Yes I agree. He has a very knowledgeable aura about him. I can tell he sees things that others don't." Luna replied. Ron stared at her in confusion.

The students began to leave the classroom, most chatting amongst themselves. Hermione found herself walking next to Blaise, who smiled at her.

"So this is going to be an interesting few weeks, isn't it?" he said.

Hermione looked at him in surprise. She knew they had a truce, but she didn't expect them to be this friendly. Truthfully, she didn't know that Slytherins were capable of friendly.

"Yes, that's' what everyone's saying." Hermione replied carefully as they walked out of the classroom and into a small room.

"Now," said Professor McGonagall. "Can each group get into a circle around a portkey, one per team."

Hermione and the Slytherins circled around an old jug. As she reached out her fingers brushed Malfoy's and she retracted them quickly, glancing up at him, noticing how tall he was. Hermione herself wasn't short, and it seemed that Malfoy was at least six foot.

He noticed her looking at him, and regarded her coolly.

"Yes mud-Granger?"

"Nothing," she mumbled, and the next thing she knew was the whirl of the portkey as it transported them to their destination.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

With a jolt, the portkey deposited Hermione and the Slytherins in a dark alleyway. The force of the landing had thrown Hermione to the floor, and as she began to clamber up she was surprised to see a pale hand appear in front of her. Her gaze moved up the hand along the person's arm until it was upon their face. Malfoy looked at her, his grey eyes flickering.

"We have a truce, yes?" he said, the hard edge to his voice slightly softer than usual.

"I… Thank you." Hermione replied, taking his hand. His grip was strong as he pulled her up, slightly too strong, and she found herself falling into him. Over his shoulder she saw Blaise and Daphne exchange a look of glee before her view was blocked as her head hit Malfoy's chest with an oof.

For a moment he didn't move. Malfoy found he liked the feeling of her body this close to his. As he came to his senses, he stepped back suddenly, the voices inside his head screaming bat him for touching the mudblood.

Before anyone could comment on the events that had just played out, Ron's group landed on the ground next to them. Ron's flailing arms whacked into a metal bin nearby, sending it flying straight into McGonagall, who had just appeared along with Lockhart.

Hermione had her wand out and muttered the charm to freeze the bin in mid-air, rolling her eyes at Ron's clumsiness.

Suddenly, the bin exploded, raining litter down on them. Shielding her face from the debris flying through the air, Hermione looked around to find the source of the other spell. None of the others seemed to have their wands out, but in the corner of her eye she saw Malfoy stowing his wand in robe pocket. Of course. Only the ferret would purposely make something explode. What threw her off was the panicked confused expression on his face.

McGonagall emerged from the smoke, spluttering. Her hair was sticking up in wild angles, and her glasses were hanging off one ear.

"Which one of you imbeciles was responsible for this? I cannot believe highly regarded eighth years such as yourselves could be so careless!"

Her eyes roamed around the group trying to find the culprit. Hermione found her own eyes drawn to Malfoy. When he sensed her looking her glanced her way, and his grey orbs widened at the wand he could see her clutching. Hermione quickly stuffed her own wand into her robes, glaring angrily at Malfoy. So he thought she had done this? What a prick. It had to have been him.

As the smoke cleared, the class could see Lockhart standing behind McGonagall, looking even more dishevelled than before, if that was possible. He cleared his throat, and the transfiguration professor turned to look at him.

"Excuse me, Professor McGonagall, but I believe you are in fact looking for two culprits, neither of whom are entirely guilty. You see, I have witnessed something similar before. Two individuals who have a powerful force of attraction between them often find that if they cast the same spell at the same time, the results can be very unexpected." His eyes flickered between Hermione and Malfoy, and Hermione blushed, infuriated.

"Very well. I will let this go, just this once. The two individuals who this applies to, however, need to rein it in. We cannot have any more outbursts like this, especially as we are in a muggle part of London. Now, if you could please all follow me, I will lead you two the hotel we will be staying at."

McGonagall began to walk towards the way out of the alley, casting a quick cleansing charm on herself and the students as she went. The students trooped out silently. As Hermione walked, she caught professor Lockhart's eye, and he gave her a wink that was the least subtle she had ever seen in her life. She cringed inwardly. Lockhart must still be slightly crazy from his period of memory loss. I mean there was no way she and Malfoy had a powerful force of attraction between them. That was simply ridiculous.

It was simply ridiculous, thought Draco as he walked out of the alley beside Blaise. There was no way that he and mudblood Granger had a powerful force of attraction between them. He watched her form in front of him as she emerged from the shadows of the alley. Lockhart must still be slightly crazy from his period of memory loss. It was the only logical explanation.

The group received many strange looks as the walked up the steps of the Ritz. Hermione blushed as she realised they were all still wearing they're Hogwarts robes. The doorman smiled at her, and she smiled back. He was around their age, and had bright twinkling blue eyes and a sweet grin.

Draco scowled at the doorman as he walked past. Blaise and Daphne merely exchanged a grin.

As Hermione entered the lobby she gasped. The place was stunning. The floor was covered with a rich red carpet, which was soft and plush. Chandeliers hung from the ceiling, which was plastered with decorative patterns. Huge vases of flowers were present on every table, and well-dressed attendants were on hand immediately to help with their luggage. Ron was gaping, his mouth hanging open, and Harry's eyes were huge. Even the Slytherins seemed mildly impressed.

"Madame, if you and your associates would like to follow me, I will show you to your rooms," an attendant said to professor McGonagall.

She smiled at him. "Thank you sir. Students, please follow this man upstairs."

Hermione found herself walking beside Malfoy, behind Daphne and Blaise, who were chuckling about something. When they reached the second floor, the attendant stopped, clearing his throat and produced a small list from his pocket.

"In the Marlborough Suite we have Miss Patil, Miss Parkinson, Mr Nott and Mr Potter. This is a four bedroomed, three bath roomed suite with a balcony and spacious living area. Malory, your attendant for the duration of your stay is waiting inside for you. Please ask her for anything you need. Have a pleasant stay."

He presented Harry with four keys, and held open the door for the quartet, who walked inside, before he moved on.

"Next door in the Winsor Suite we have Miss Midgen, Miss Lovegood, Mr boot and Mr Weasley. This suite is similar to the Marlborough suite, however you will be attended by Clara, who is awaiting your arrival inside."

Handing Terry four keys, he moved onto the next suite.

"The Blackwood Suite is a two bedroomed, two bath roomed suite with two separate balconies. Professors McGonagall and Lockhart, this will be your room for your stay. Matthias will be your attendant, and he is waiting inside," he told McGonagall as he passed her two keys.

He turned to Hermione and the Slytherins.

"Now, if you all would follow me, your suite is a short trip around the corner."

The four of them accompanied him around the corner until they were in front of another door.

"This is the Whitethorne Suite. Unfortunately, due to the hotel being at maximum capacity, this suite has only three bedrooms and two bathrooms, so two of you will have to share. It si the only available suite so there is no room for negotiation."

Hermione's face fell. She hardly knew the Slytherins, and certainly did not want to share a room with them. She saw Blaise and Daphne exchange a glance.

The attendant continued. "You shall be attended upon by Jasper, who is waiting for you inside. This is his first time attending a group so please be a little lenient with him; he is young. Enjoy your stay." He smiled, handing Blaise the four keys and opening the door.

Hermione gasped at the beauty of the room. The ceiling was one of the highest she'd ever seen, and was covered in swirling plaster patterns. Much like the lobby, and huge chandelier hung down. Her admiration of the room was cut off, however, due to the actions of her fellow teammates.

Blaise and Daphne looked at each other, and, grabbing their bags from the table where they had been placed by an attendant, sprinted towards the two separate rooms that shared a bathroom.

"I call dibs on this one!" they both shouted in unison, before hurtling into their chosen rooms, laughing as they went.

"What! No!" Hermione exclaimed horrified.

"ZABINI!" hollered Malfoy, pounding on the door of the bedroom that his best friend had retired into.

"There is no way in Azkaban I am sharing a room with a ferret!" shrieked Hermione.

"Actually, you won't just be sharing a room, you'll also be sharing a bed," said a voice from across the room, and both Hermione and Malfoy whipped their heads around to it's source.

Leaning against the wall was the doorman who Hermione had smiled at. He grinned at her, before starting to speak. "Hi, I'm Jasper, and I'm going to be attending on you during your stay. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but each of the bedrooms in this suite contains a double bed, which apparently you two will be sharing, but I'll leave you to decide that amongst yourselves."

Walking towards the door, Jasper winked at Hermione. "Just call if you need anything.

Blushing, Hermione turned back to Malfoy, who was glaring at Jasper's back.

What were they going to do?


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Hermione and Malfoy just looked at each other in silence for what seemed like a very long time.

Eventually, the silence was broken by Blaise, who, upon poking his head cautiously out of his room and seeing them still there, decided to input his opinion.

"Have you two not gone into your room yet? I would've thought you'd want to settle in… break the bed in if you catch my dri-"

The door slammed with Blaise on the other side of it as Malfoy whipped out his wand. Muffled laughter and high-pitched giggling indicated that Blaise was sharing his input with Daphne. Turning to Hermione, he put his wand back into his pocket.

"There is no way I am going to share a bed with you." he said matter-of-factly. "So therefore," Malfoy continued, "you will have to sleep on the couch."

With that, he walked into the one remaining bedroom, slamming the door behind him. Hermione was left standing, mouth hanging open, in the middle of the drawing room. Fuming, she dumped her stuff on the couch and marched over to the door.

"DRACO MALFOY! OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW OR I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WILL HEX YOU INTO TOMORROW!" she screamed, banging furiously on the door.

Her last thump was strong enough to break the door open and she stamped into the room, only to stop dead.

Malfoy was stood with his back to her, and was in the middle of removing his robes. His shirtless back made Hermione's eyes widen as she saw the lash marks across it. The angry welts were a harsh red against his pale skin, and Hermione could guess exactly who had put them there. A small gasp escaped from her lips. When he turned to see her standing there, his eyes turned to steel.

"Get out. Get out. I am giving you three seconds to get out of this room, you stupid fucking MUDBLOOD!" Malfoy yelled and Hermione fled.

She had no idea that things were that bad for Malfoy within his own family. Hermione felt sorry for him, and couldn't even begin to imagine what it must be like. But that was far from the strangest emotion whirling around inside her head; she actually felt inclined to comfort him, to put her arms around his lean muscular body and whisper that it would all be okay.

She threw herself onto the couch in the drawing room, trying desperately to banish such thoughts from her head, just as she heard a knocking at the door. Dragging herself over, she opened it to find a concerned looking Jasper outside.

"Hello there. I was just popping over to check that you're all okay. I heard some shouting."

Hermione smiled at him, cursing herself and Malfoy inwardly. Of course someone had heard them. They hadn't exactly been quiet.

"Yeah it's okay, my roommate and I just had a little disagreement about the sleeping arrangements. Nothing to worry about."

Jasper looked relieved. "I see. Well I hope you can sort it out, although I see no reason why he should be unhappy. I'm sure many men would kill to sleep in the same bed as you, myself included." he smirked, flashing her a grin, and Hermione laughed.

"If you don't mind me asking miss…?"

"Please call me Hermione."

He smiled warmly "Okay, Hermione, If you don't mind me asking, what is a Mudblood?"

Hermione froze. Of course he had to here Malfoy use that word.

"I'm sorry if I offended you in any way, I-"

Hermione cut him off, smiling weakly. "It's not your fault. Mudblood is an… insult in the place we come from," she explained.

"I see. And where would that be?"

Hermione fumbled for an answer that would make sense.

"We all attend a… boarding school in Scotland."

"Is that why you wear these clothes?" Jasper asked, gesturing to her robes.

"Yes. It's sort of a school tradition." she smiled, relieved that he wasn't suspicious.

"I see. Well, I guess I'll see you later," he grinned at her, and she agreed, smiling as she shut the door.

Turning around, the smile dropped from her face as she saw Malfoy watching her. He stood in the doorway to his room, and was dressed in muggle clothing: a plain grey shirt, black skinny jeans and a black leather jacket, and Hermione couldn't help but appreciate how good he looked.

Her eyes roamed over his body, travelling from his feet all the way up to his head, before stopping to linger on his face. His grey eyes seemed emotionless, yet full of emotion, and Hermione had to look away before she could talk.

"Listen, Malfoy, I… I… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have burst in like that."

When she looked up to meet his eye, he was staring back at her coolly.

"You may want to get changed before we go down to meet McGonagall for the briefing of the first task. The clothes on the right hand side of the wardrobe are for you. Please refrain from touching anything of mine." Malfoy said stiffly, ignoring her apology.

Fine, thought Hermione. If he wanted to act like nothing had happened, then that was just fine.

"Thank you for telling me. I will be out shortly," Hermione replied in the same stiff tone as she walked into the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

She walked over to the wardrobe and picked out an outfit that consisted of a pair of pale blue jeans, a flowery chiffon blouse and some baby doll pumps. Stripping off her robes and dressing in the muggle clothing, her brain was a whirlwind of thoughts, and much to her annoyance, a lot of them were about Malfoy.

Opening the door, she walked out into the drawing room to find the three Slytherins waiting for her. Daphne and Blaise smiled at her, whilst Malfoy looked straight past her as if she wasn't even there.

They walked down to meet the rest of their group. When they arrived, everyone else was already there, so McGonagall quickly got down to business.

"Alright then students, listen up please. I trust that you have all settled in nicely to your rooms. Now that you are all present, I am going to run through the instructions for your first task, but first, a few rules. Breakfast is at 7:30am each morning in the breakfast hall, lunch at 1:00 in the restaurant and dinner at 8:00, again in the restaurant. Attendance of the meals is compulsory, unless otherwise specified by a member of staff."

Pausing for breath, she produced a few pieces of paper from the folder she was holding.

"The first task is a Scavenger Hunt." McGonagall announced, and Hermione couldn't help but grin. She loved scavenger hunts. Looking around the room, she chuckled slightly at the all the purebloods confused expressions. This was going to be fun.

"For those of you who don't know what that is," McGonagall continued, "it is a muggle searching game. Each team is given the list of things they need to find around the city. There are fifteen items they must bring back with them, five things they must photograph and five things they must video. The team who manages to find the most items wins, and in the event of a draw, the team who arrived back here first is the winner. here are your lists. You have until 1:00 to find these items and to return here, which is roughly three hours. You may begin!"

She handed each team a list of items and Hermione took theirs, grinning.

This was going to be great!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Hermione showed the rest of the team the list, which read:

SCAVENGER HUNT

Items:

A Domino's Pizza Box

A Bottle of Strawberry Shampoo

A Girl's Phone Number

A Guy's Phone Number

A Bottle of Caramel Sauce

Pink Lipstick

A James Bond Film featuring Sean Connery

A 2010 Calender

A Blue Crayola Crayon

A Kazoo

A Starbucks Cup

An Ace of Spades

Someone's nametag from a store

A Take-Out Menu from a Chinese Restaurant

A Coin with the Oldest Team Members Birth Year on it

Just as they were all reading it, McGonagall spoke again.

"Pause the time! I forgot to mention. In each of your pockets, you should find a credit card. You can use these to pay for any things that you need to buy from the list. The pin is 1309. Okay, continue!"

Hermione looked up at her team members, who all looked mystified.

"Why would a coin have someone's birth year on it?" asked Blaise, confused.

"Yeah, and what is Starbucks? And Domino's?" frowned Daphne.

To Hermione's surprise, Malfoy was the one to answer.

"Starbucks is a muggle coffee shop, Domino's a muggle fast food restaurant that serves Pizza."

Noticing her incredulous stare, Malfoy frowned. "I'm not completely useless you know Granger, no matter how hard that is for your superior Gryffindor brain to comprehend. Shall we go?"

Hermione just followed as they walked out of the hotel, Lockhart shouting after them merrily "Only two hours and fifty nine minutes to go!"

Scanning the rest of the list, Hermione saw the photo section and video section, and grinned as she read them. There were a couple she couldn't wait to see.

Photos:

The entire team sitting with an unknown family at a restaurant

A person called Lucy

The entire team in a photo booth all at once

A member of the team hugging a stranger

The entire team in the dark with flashlights at their faces

Videos:

The whole team doing the Macarena in a public place

A guy in the team trying on a dress

An unknown couple telling the story of how they met

Going through a drive-through in a shopping trolley

A girl in the team having her make-up done by a guy in the team

"Well, a couple of the things on here we can find back at the room, so I say we go out and look around the shops in the area, see what we can find, then get back here a couple of minutes before meeting time so we have time to go up there." Daphne offered.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Let's go," said Blaise.

"Hang on a second. Don't you guys know where we are?" Hermione asked.

The three Slytherins turned to look at her, clueless. "We're in London, right?" Daphne frowned.

Hermione laughed. "Yes, but muggle London is nothing like wizard London. For a start, it's way way bigger. We can't just walk into the nearest shop and get all the things on this list. The area we're in is really posh, and mostly just sells expensive clothes and jewellery. There is no way there is a Domino's anywhere near the Ritz."

"You mean that there are different sections of the city?" Blaise said, looking utterly baffled.

"Yes, exactly." Hermione smiled at him, and although he smiled back, they all still looked completely bewildered.

"Look, how about we go back to that alley, and we can apparate to a place where we can get this stuff." Hermione tried.

"Okay." Daphne said, clearly relieved that someone else had taken charge.

"Lead on, Macduff." Hermione grinned at Blaise, who looked back at her almost fearfully.

"I'm sorry what?"

She laughed yet again. "Muggle saying. Don't worry about it. Come on."

The four of them walked into the alley, and Hermione turned to face the others.

"Right. So the place that we are going to apparate to is called Tottemham Court Road. It's in the main shopping area of London, and it's also near a Sainsbury's, so we can get most of the stuff on the list from there. Everyone ready?"

They all nodded in response, and on the count of three, they all closed their eyes and yelled "TOTTENHAM COURT ROAD!"

The next thing they knew, they were landing on the pavement of the busy street. Someone pushed Malfoy just as he appeared and he was shoved straight into Hermione.

"Oi! Watch where you're going, you blonde dumbass," the man said, giving Malfoy a dirty look before starting to walk away.

In a flurry of movement, Malfoy had the man in a headlock, looking at him with a glare of pure loathing. "Would you like to repeat that?" he said, his voice deadly calm.

The man looked up at him, fear in his eyes. "Look mate, I'm sorry, just let me go. I have a wife… kids…" he pleaded.

"Don't you ever talk to me like that again, you filthy muggle." Malfoy growled, before releasing the man, who ran away, sweat pouring down his head.

"Draco Malfoy!" Hermione scolded, scowling at Malfoy, who looked pleasantly pleased with himself. "Did your mother not teach you any manners? That is no way to treat others."

He gave a short sharp laugh that sounded forced. "Oh Granger, I wouldn't expect a mud-muggleborn to understand. That sort of treatment is exactly what my family did teach me. You've seen first hand what happened whenever I disobeyed, or have you forgotten already?"

Hermione had certainly not forgotten. The memory haunted her head, no matter how hard she tried to banish it. She could still see the angry red scars marking his pale skin.

"Besides," he continued bitterly. "He deserved. That piece of trash walked into me. Doesn't he know who I am?"

"No actually he doesn't." Daphne said quietly and Hermione and Malfoy both turned around to look at her, surprised.

"In the Wizarding world your family may be infamous Malfoy, but in the muggle world, your just one of millions of strangers. No one knows who you are."

Malfoy glowered. "And what would you know about the muggle world, Daphne Greengrass? Little miss oh-so-pure. How would you know shit about this place?"

Hermione wanted to intervene as she witnessed the tongue-lashing Malfoy was giving the girl, but a look from Blaise as she stepped forward told her not to.

"Myauntisamuggle." Daphne blurted as Malfoy had a go at her.

He stopped mid sentence, staring at her.

"What?"

"My aunt is a muggle." She replied, slightly slower.

"How is that even possible? You're a pureblood. Unless…" his eyes widened as he regarded Daphne.

"My mother was a half-blood. Her sister didn't get the magic." Daphne confessed, looking down at her shoes.

"Your mother was a what?" Malfoy said slowly.

Hermione glanced at Blaise, who didn't surprised; it seemed he had been privy to Daphne's terrible secret.

"My mother was a half-blood. Don't look at me like that Draco, please. It isn't my fault. How could I control what my parents were? I didn't even know until last Christmas. My dad lied to all of us." She looked up at Malfoy, tears in her eyes. "I understand if you don't want to be my friend anymore, but please can we just get through this competition."

To everyone's disbelief, Malfoy pulled Daphne in for a sisterly hug. "I get it. Not all our families are so pure, by blood or otherwise." he glanced at Hermione when he said the last part, and with a jolt she remembered the vicious lash marks. It had been someone from his family, he had practically just confirmed this, and Hermione didn't need to be the genius she was to guess who.

"Aww Draco, who knew you could be so sentimental?" Blaise joked, obviously relieved by the nature of how things had played out.

Malfoy laughed. "Don't worry, it won't last. I'll be back to my cold harsh self in a few minutes. Now, shall we get on with this scavenger hunt?" he asked, turning to Hermione.

But last Malfoy's good mood did, and he was laughing along with the rest of them as they left the Sainsbury's on Tottenham Court Road.

"Well, that's almost half the things on the items list ticked off. We got the strawberry shampoo, the caramel sauce, the pink lipstick, the James Bond film- that was a lucky find, I thought we'd have to go to the DVD store, a pack of cards with an ace of spades in it, and a pack of crayons for the blue Crayola crayon. Also, that shop attendant gave us her nametag thanks to Dra-Malfoy's ridiculous charm." Hermione announced, looking through the bag.

Daphne and Blaise high-fived, grinning. "We are such pros." Daphne proclaimed.

"Who's the oldest of the four of us?" asked Malfoy, peering at the muggle money the cashier had given him as change.

"Well, I'm the oldest of us three Slytherins." Blaise reminded him, "So unless Hermione was born before January 31st 1980…" he trailed off, looking at Hermione for the answer.

"I was actually. My birthday is September 19th, so look for one with 1979 on it," she replied.

Sorting through the coins, Malfoy held one up to the light. "Here's one, I think," said unsurely. "Who's this woman?"

"That's the Queen of England." Hermione explained, taking the coin from him. "She's on all muggle money. Yes, you're right this is 1979. Well done," she smiled at him.

To her surprise, he smiled back, almost warmly.

"Sorry to interrupt this beautiful moment between the two of you, but I believe we have a scavenger hunt to finish." Blaise smirked, watching the two of them. they both turned to glare at him.

"As if I'd ever get with a ferret." Hermione said, just as Malfoy said "As if I'd ever get with a mud-muggleborn."

Blaise and Daphne just laughed. "Please, you two argue like a married couple." The girl smirked.

"Shall we get on with the hunt?" asked Hermione, desperate to change the subject.

"Sure. What shall we try to get next?" Blaise asked, peering at the list.

"Well," Hermione said thoughtfully, "There's a restaurant street near here where we can probably get the menu, the cup and the Domino's box."

"Great, let's go." Daphne smiled, and they were off.

Hermione was exactly right, and they emerged from the street a couple of minute's later, take-out menu, Starbuck's cup and Pizza box in hand.

"We should probably do some of the pictures and videos." Malfoy pointed out. "I mean, we've got most of the items on the list."

The other three agreed.

"Let's see. Well, we could pop into that Italien restaurant over there and see if we could find a family." Daphne suggested.

"Okay. but please, remember to act like muggles." Hermione grinned.

"Okay, I'm sorry little-miss-muggle, but not all of us know everything there is to know about muggle traditions and nonsense. We weren't all raised by them." Blaise teased, touching her lightly on the shoulder. Hermione giggled, stopping abruptly when she saw the cold glare Malfoy was giving the two of them.

"Let's go," she said, before walking towards the door to the restaurant, the others following behind.

A waiter appeared when they walked in. "Table for four?" he asked, menus in hand.

Hermione's eyes were roaming the room looking for a family when Malfoy spoke up. "Actually, we're with them." He pointed towards a family that consisted of a Mother, Father, five year old girl, a boy who looked around their age, and a grandma.

"Ah, I see." the waiter said as he led them over.

"Bring some more chairs." Malfoy ordered. "Please." chimed in Hermione, sending him a look. The Slytherin just shrugged in response, before sitting down at the table in the one free chair.

The family looked at him, baffled.

"I'm sorry, do we know you?" the father asked eventually.

"No." Malfoy said simply, picking at his nails as the waiter returned with three more chairs.

"Thank you." said Hermione, dragging the chair to sit at the table. She smiled at the bemused family, hoping that they weren't too freaked out.

"Hi. My name's Hermione. I'm sorry to invade your meal, but we're participating in a scavenger hunt and we wondered whether it would be possible for us to have our picture taken with you."

Instantly the family seemed to relax. "Ah, I see. Your friend didn't really explain." the mother laughed.

"Of course it's not a problem." the father smiled, calling the waiter over.

"What's happening?" shouted the grandma to the mother.

"These people are doing a scavenger hunt, Granny. They need to take a picture with us," her daughter explained.

"I remember back in the day. We used to entertain ourselves, none of this scavenger hunt new fangled technology. It's the death of society I say.'

The older boy looked up from the table. "No Granny, a scavenger hunt. It's like a treasure hunt." he flashed the four a grin. "Sorry, she's a little deaf."

"Who are you calling deaf, sonny?" The granny yelled.

"So Hermione, you haven't introduced us to your friends." the mother smiled at her.

"Ah okay. This is Blaise, Daphne and mal-Draco," she pointed to them each in turn.

"What interesting names! I'm called Susan, this is my husband Pete, my mother Eunice and my two children, Katy and Matt."

"Everyone ready? Say cheese!" The waiter shouted over the chaos.

Just at that moment, the Katy picked up her glass of Fanta and dumped the entire contents onto Malfoy's head.

"I don't like you. You're a mean poopy." She announced, looking immensely pleased with herself.

Daphne snatched the camera from the waiter. "Please say you got a picture of that." She said, looking at the screen with glee.

"YES! This is amazing and it is totally going in our presentation!" she crowed, throwing her hands in the air.

The family were all still apologising profusely to Malfoy.

"I'm so sorry, I don't know what has got into her." Susan said, attempting to wipe some of the drink from him with a paper napkin.

Hermione was watching in amusement as Malfoy tried to fend off the woman's motherly concern. "Honestly it's fine," he was saying.

"He's taking it remarkably well," a voice next to her said thoughtfully, and she turned to see Matt standing beside her. Hermione laughed, "Yes, well we're all surprised. Mal-Draco would usually through a tantrum of his own."

"Well, he certainly seems like an interesting character. The way he walked in and sat down like he owned the place. It must be a trial doing the hunt with him if he's always like that." Noticing the odd look on Hermione's face he tried to back track. "Sorry, you two aren't together are you? I didn't mean to offend you, I-"

"NO! Nothing like that" Hermione cut in quickly. "But speaking of the scavenger hunt, do you think I could ask you another favour? the thing is, I need to get a boy's phone number, and I wondering if you would give me yours…?" She trailed of uncertainly.

"Sure." Matt replied easily. "No biggie." He scribbled it down on a nearby napkin and handed it to her. Malfoy had finally gotten away from Susan, and the others were looking at her, ready to leave.

"Thank you! Well enjoy your meal." She smiled at the whole family, and walked towards her fellow teammates.

"Hermione!" a voice behind called, and she turned to look. "Just so you know, I'd have given you my number even if it hadn't been for the hunt." Matt winked at her, and she blushed.

Blaise wolf-whistled. "Gryffindor's golden girl, on the hunt. Who would've known she'd be such a little vixen?" she teased, and Daphne and Hermione laughed as the exited th erestuarant


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Nice going Hermione," Daphne congratulated her as they walked down the street.

"Thanks," the Gryffindor smiled. "What do you think we should try to get next?" she asked handing her the list.

Daphne looked over it. "Well, items-wise, we have almost everything. One of the guys can get a girls phone number no problem, so that's easy. I have some pink lipstick back at the hotel, so we can grab that when we get back. A 2010 calendar will be a little tricky, but I'm sure we can find one if we look hard enough, but perhaps we should leave that until later, so then if we don't find one we've still got everything else," she reasoned, and Hermione nodded. "As for a kazoo, I don't even know what that is, so…" she laughed.

"Well, lets focus on the pictures and videos then. I know where we can find a photo-booth, there's one in Urban Outfitters. That's a muggle clothing store by the way."

Daphne nodded. "Okay, let's go for it." She turned to relay their plan to the two boys, who were walking behind them, and they both nodded. Draco had performed a scourgify charm on his hair, which was where the majority of the drink had hit him, and was looking relatively clean.

When they got to Urban Outfitters, Hermione lead them over to the photo booth. Climbing in and sitting down on the stool, she motioned for the others to join her. bewildered, the three Slytherins trooped into the photo booth. Hermione shifted over in the seat, and Daphne sat down beside her. Blaise stood behind her, whilst Malfoy stood behind Hermione as she explained the basic principles of the machine. It was a tight squeeze.

"So, this screen here is what will take the picture. We'll get four pictures, and you can pose differently for each one. Remember, It needs to be a still pose because muggle photos don't move." she said, popping some coins into the slot, and pressing the option they wanted.

"Ready?" she grinned.

3…2…1… went the screen, before flashing as it took the picture.

The Slytherins all stared at it, eyes wide with bewilderment and fear. Hermione couldn't help bursting into laughter, just as the next picture was taken with a flash.

"The flash is just the picture taking, nothing to be scared of." she expleained through giggles.

"I wasn't scared." all three said immediately, and Hermione just smirked.

"Woah," Malfoy said, "that smirk was nearly worthy of a Slytherin. Do it again."

Hermione smirked again, and all three of the Slytherins smirked back, just as the camera flashed again.

"Last one! Do something really posey!" Hermione exclaimed, before pushing her mouth into a pout and holding up the peace sign with her hands.

Laughing, all four of them clattered out of the photo booth. Hermione took the pictures out of the slot and grinned as she saw how they had come out.

"Well, it was fair to say in this one we were definitely not ready." Hermione chuckled, pointing out their faces in the first of the four images.

"This posey one's really cute!" proclaimed Daphne. In the last photo, all four teammates had picked poses and it had come out really well. Even Malfoy, who seemed like he had a stick up his arse half the time, Hermione thought, had got stuck in. Hermione was doing her pout, Blaise had whipped his shades out at the last second and had his hands out in the shape of a gun. Daphne was looking at the camera in a sultry manner that reminded Hermione of a model. Malfoy stood at the back, one hand running through his hair and the other at his mouth, and he stared off into the distance as though thinking deep and meaningful thoughts.

"Nope, this ones definitely my favourite." Hermione announced, looking at the second one and cracking up again. Just the sight of the three Slytherins looking so scared and bewildered as she laughed at the bottom was hilarious.

"Oh, look at this one, everyone's got the Slytherin smirk, even Gryffindor's Princess." Blaise laughed.

Hermione laughed even harder as she looked at the third one. All four of them were smirking at the camera, and looked positively evil.

"It looks at lot like a Malfoy smirk, the one you've got there Hermione." Blaise himself smirked as he elbowed Daphne.

Hermione glanced up at Malfoy to see him looking at her. He quickly looked away. Whilst they'd been having a great time as a team, it was definitely Blaise and Daphne who were keeping the group together. Malfoy and herself had hardly uttered a word to each other without prompting.

"What should we do next?" Hermione asked Daphne, and the Slytherin girl dug the scavenger list out of her pocket.

She scanned it, and then looked up, eyes shining cunningly. "This is a clothes shop, yes?"

Hermione nodded an affirmative.

"So therefore, it will sell dresses…?"

Hermione grinned as she realised what Daphne was planning.

"Oh yes. Just the sort of dresses we're looking for."

The two grinned at each other conspiratorially.

"Oh Draco, Blaise!" Daphne smiled sweetly, her voice upbeat and sing-song. Each of the Slytherins narrowed their eyes, suspicious immediately.

"How about we do one of the videos on the list?" she continued brightly, ignoring the distrust written all over their faces. "Which one of you wants to try on a dress picked by your personal stylists, myself and Hermione!"

Both the boys looked at her with genuine fear in their eyes and began backing away.

"ON SALAZAR'S NAME I SWEAR IT WON'T BE ME!" Blaise yelled, grinning triumphantly at Malfoy, who groaned.

"What?" Hermione frowned in confusion.

"It's a Slytherin thing, a bit like an oath, except a way of getting out of something. You say 'On Salazar's name I swear it won't be me.' and then you're automatically exempt. The last person to not say it has to do it."

"Ah, I see. A bit like a 'Baggsy not me!'" Hermione nodded.

Daphne stared at her. "Uhm. If you say so. Now, let's go pick Draco the perfect dress!" she smirked, looping Hermione's arm through hers and pulling her into the rails of clothing.

"Just pick anything that you think will work, and we can look through them in a minute." Daphne said as they browsed through the rails.

"I've got quite a few already." Hermione smirked in reply, picking yet another dress off of the rack. This one was a hot pink colour, bodycon in style and had a trim of black lace running along the hem and sleeves.

A couple of minutes later the girls regrouped outside the changing rooms and analysed their finds.

"Let's narrow it down to one or two, and then we can let Blaise pick." Hermione suggested and Daphne threw back her head in laughter.

"I swear Hermione, you're getting more and more Slytherin as the day goes on," she snickered.

Once they had chosen three for Blaise to pick from, Hermione went to find him. He and Malfoy were waiting downstairs by the photo booth.

"Blaise, we need your opinion on a few options we've selected." Hermione grinned wickedly.

Malfoy groaned as if he was physically in pain. "Please don't do this to me. I know I'm a terrible person, but no-one deserves this. No-one."

"Sorry, no can-do. Blaise are you coming?"

"On my way, ma'am!" Blaise said, mock saluting.

They returned to Daphne, who was holding the three dresses she and Hermione had set aside.

"Ah, are esteemed fashion consultant. Sit down. Hermione is going to model these options for you." Daphne announced, and Hermione's mouth fell open.

"What! No!" she protested, but Daphne hushed her.

"No arguing. In fact, Blaise go and call Draco. I think he would like to see this."

Blaise smirked before getting up and walking away to fetch Malfoy.

"But… but…" Hermione tried as Daphne thrust the three dresses towards her. "No buts. Get in there and start changing. Try the blue one first. I'll be along in a minute with some heels to match each of them. Chop-chop." she directed Hermione into a changing room and drew the curtain across, before poking her head in.

"What do you prefer, ten-inches or nine?" she asked, and Hermione looked at her in disgust.

"Heels you idiot! Merlin you are so dirty minded." she shook her head before disappearing, probably in search of some ridiculously high heels.

Sighing, Hermione took off her jeans and shirt and started to wriggle into the first dress. It was a periwinkle blue number, made of a satiny material. It hugged the curves of her upper body, but flared out around the knee, much to Hermione's relief. The bodice was studded with hundreds of tiny crystals, and the neckline, although low, was still more classy than it was slutty.

Just as she had pulled the dress on, a hand appeared through the curtains waving pair of sparkly blue shoes.

"These are perfect!" Daphne squealed. "Are you done? Don't come out until you've got the shoes on!"

Sighing again, Hermione put the shoes on. They were strappy, the same periwinkle blue as the dress, and the heels were a good inch higher than anything Hermione had ever even thought about wearing.

Compared to the others this wasn't so bad, she reminded herself. She was not looking forward to seeing what Daphne came up with shoe-wise when she modelled the other two, sluttier numbers.

Taking a deep breath she drew back the curtain and stepped out of the changing room. A high-pitched shriek of delight immediately helped her pinpoint her teams location and she headed towards them nervously, walking cautiously in the heels.

"That looks great Hermione!" Daphne smiled, and the Gryffindor smiled back.

"Yeah, really pretty. What do you think Draco mate?" Blaise asked, a sly grin on his face.

All three turned to Malfoy, waiting for his reaction.

His face had turned slightly red. "Er, yeah, very nice." he said, stammering slightly as he spoke.

"Brilliant. Next!" exclaimed Daphne. It was obvious she was in her element as she herded Hermione back into the changing room.

"The pink one next, I think. We'll save this one until last. It'll knock his socks out, believe you me." She winked, before leaving Hermione to get changed.

Stripping off the blue dress, she pulled on the pink one, struggling slightly with the back, which was a tangle of thin straps. This one was less modest, she realised as she pulled it on, even though it had been one of her choices, the other two being Daphne's. She hadn't quite anticipated that she would be forced to wear them as well. The bottom came to just above the knee, and the dress hugged her body all the way down. However the neckline was a tad higher, Hermione saw with relief. At least some of her modesty would be retained.

When the dress was finally on properly, Hermione called out to the other girl.

"Daphne! I'm ready, although I'm assuming you have some ridiculously high shoes for me to wear."

She heard laughter from the three Slytherins.

"She's already got you pegged Daph!" Blaise chuckled.

"Here you go." Daphne said, passing another pair of heels through the curtain. These were more solid, but about an inch or so higher than the last, and were the same hot pink as the dress. The Slytherin definitely had an eye for colour.

Drawing back the curtain Hermione stepped out for the second time. She was greeted again by coos of delight by Daphne, who was positively beaming. Blaise was smirking, giving sidelong glances to Malfoy to see his reaction. The other boy was slightly wide-eyed as Hermione walked over.

"What do you think?" she asked nervously.

"It's amazing! You should wear things like this more often!" Blaise gushed, doing a remarkably good impression of Daphne whilst shocking which had the group roaring with laughter.

"I think you'll look even better in the next one though," said Daphne slyly, shooting Blaise a conspiratorial grin.

"Go on, show us the last one then." Blaise urged.

Sighing yet again, Hermione returned to the changing room for the third time and stripped off the pink dress. She took the last one off the rail. It was a bronzey-gold colour, and shimmered in the light as Hermione removed the hanger. She slid into it easily, it was like a second skin, and gasped at the sluttiness of it. The bottom barely covered her arse, and the neckline was extremely low cut. The straps hung off the shoulder, exposing her collarbone and neck.

"There is no way I am coming out dressed like this!" she told Daphne as the other girl handed her a pair of heels.

"Even more reason why we'll want to see you!" Blaise yelled cheekily.

"Nope, you are not quitting now. You are going to knock Draco dead in that dress, I just know it. If this can't make him admit he likes you, nothing ev-"

Daphne was cut off by a well-aimed silencio charm fired by Malfoy. Although Hermione couldn't see what was happening, she took the context of what the girl had been saying and her unexpected silence and put two and two together.

Storming out of the changing room, hermione's eyes were ablaze.

"DRACO MALFOY! What on earth do you think you are doing!" she hissed, marching towards him. "This is a public place, anyone could have seen you!"

Draco didn't reply. He was staring at her, mouth hanging wide open as he took in her appearance.

Blaise whistled. "Dang Hermione. If I didn't bat for the other side I would definitely want a piece of you. Draco mate you definitely have good taste."

Hermione stamped her foot. "Is no-one listening to me? Did you not see what just happened?"

"Sorry hun, but I think Draco is a little to distracted by your attire here to be able to think coherent thoughts right now." Blaise smirked.

"Urgh! You Slytherins are so bloody annoying!" Hermione exclaimed.

The silencing charm had worn off, and Daphne squealed.

"Hermione you look stunning!"

Malfoy shook himself before turning to Blaise. "Did you say something about batting for another team?" he asked.

Hermione gasped as she realised what exactly Blaise had been implying with that comment.

All three turned to look at Blaise, Hermione's dress entirely forgotten.

Well, not entirely, thought Malfoy, who had decided it looked good, but not as good as it would look on his bedroom floor.

Stupid mudblood. What kind of spell had she put on him to make him think thoughts like that? he shook himself again before turning to the situation at hand.

 **A/N: Hi! First of all I'd like to thank you for reading my fic! I hope you're enjoying it so far. Just to say, I'm going to be away for the weekend, so I probably won't be able to update until Monday afternoon (British time). Please bear with me, and until then, leave a review on what you think so far and ideas of what you think will happen next! Thank you!**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Blaise flushed under their scrutinizing gazes, and Hermione felt a pang of pity for him. She glanced around at the other two Slytherins. Daphne didn't seem that surprised, and Hermione wondered if she had already known. The two seemed quite close after all, and Blaise had known about Daphne's aunt. Malfoy was a whole other story. His face was a picture of shock, horror and confusion. Although she didn't know much about the inner pureblood circle, she could hazard a guess that being gay just wasn't the done thing.

Hermione tore her eyes away from Malfoy as Daphne shattered the silence with a high-pitched squeal.

"EEEE! Oh my Merlin Blaise this is perfect! I always wanted a gay best friend! That sounds amazingly shallow but now I have a shopping trio! You, Hermione and me will be queens of the high street. Yay! Pansy and Millie never want to go shopping with me, Millie doesn't care about clothes at all, and Pansy has hers all ordered in from some posh wizard brand. I can't wait! Hermione can show us all the shops in the muggle world and we can help you get some great-looking guys!" she pulled Blaise into a crushing hug.

Blaise sighed with relief, but was watching Malfoy carefully over Daphne shoulder. When she finally released Blaise, the Slytherin girl pulled a face at Malfoy.

"Oh, come on Draco, don't look like that. I mean, wasn't it obvious? Fabulous dress sense, flamboyant personality, overly crude sex jokes about girls to try and hide it."

Hermione's eyes widened. So Daphne hadn't known for certain, she had simply guessed. Maybe she was better at reading people than the Gryffindor had first thought.

"Oh come on. I am a Slytherin you know, it's in my blood to be extra suspicious of people until I've worked out exactly what makes them tick. For Blaise, it's boys. For Pansy, it's feeling completely in charge. For Millie it's feeling feared. For Hermione it's being top of the class. For Draco, it's general death and revenge and slytheriny stuff. Oh and Hermione of course."

Malfoy and Hermione both turned to glare at Daphne. "That's utterly ridiculous you fool. Why on earth would you think a stupid little mud-muggleborn like Granger would make me tick?" Malfoy sneered.

Daphne just stared straight back at him, smirking.

"You just confirmed it right now, when you stopped yourself from calling her a mudblood." she sent an apologetic look at Hermione for her use of the word. "You would say it to any other muggleborn, but not her. I wonder why that is? Well maybe it's because you like her. Ever thought of that? So stop judging Blaise for his choices and take a look at your own."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up. What in Azkaban was going on? Today had been one of the weirdest days of her life, and it wasn't even midday. First, she agreed on a truce with a bunch of Slytherins. Then, she made friends with a pureblood Slytherin girl who turned out to be not so pure after all. Then she made friends with a pureblood Slytherin boy who turned out to be gay. Last but not least, the same Slytherin girl and boy were claiming that Draco Malfoy, her arch enemy for seven years, a former death eater at that, had a crush on her.

This was all utterly ridiculous and completely illogical and Hermione Granger had had enough.

"I'm going to stop you all right there." She announced stepping forward. "I have had enough. I don't know what you're all trying to pull here, but I'm not falling for it. There is no way in Azkaban that the ferret and I will ever get together. EVER. So, what I propose is this. We finish the scavenger hunt, no more talk of crushes or sly looks behind our backs – yes, Daphne, Blaise, I'm not blind, as it turns out. Is that ok with everyone?"

All three Slytherins nodded, but Malfoy refused to look her in the eye.

"Okay then. Malfoy, get in there and try a dress on. I don't care which one. I need to get changed back into my normal clothes and then we can try and do some of the other things on the list before we have to go back."

Hermione knew she was being bossy but at this point she didn't really care. Daphne and Blaise seemed like perfectly nice people, but things were getting out of hand with the whole 'Draco loves Hermione' 'Hermione loves Draco' thing and she had decided to put her foot down.

"I'm not doing it."

Hermione's head whipped around to face Malfoy. She could feel the anger bubbling up inside her.

"I'm sorry, what did you just say?" she asked, a dangerous edge to her voice.

"I said. I'm not doing it." Malfoy replied equally as dangerously, staring Hermione out.

"Draco. Fucking. Malfoy. You are fucking well going to do it, or I swear to Merlin I will physically force you into that dress myself." Hermione practically growled, trying desperately hard not to hex him on the spot. The infuriating bastard! And he just stood there, looking all sexy and badass, thinking he owned the world. Not. Sexy.

Malfoy, looked at her, before spinning on his heel and walking silently into the dressing room. Blaise and Daphne exchanged a grin, making Hermione glare at them.

"And you two. Don't think I don't see you. You can both sit over there. Blaise, hold the video camera and film Malfoy when he comes out."

"Yes ma'am." Blaise saluted Hermione, smirking.

He and Daphne took at seat in the chairs where they had watched Hermione model the dresses. Handing him the video camera, Hermione flopped down into the chair adjacent to them, sighing.

"You know, Hermione, you're good for him." Daphne told her. "You make him think. I don't think I've seen him anywhere near as happy as he's been today just being around you. Whether he knows it and is willing to admit it or not, anyone with eyes can see it. I'm not trying to start an argument so don't get angry with me," she said as Hermione opened her mouth to retort. "I just thought you should know. You make him a better person. Usually he's cutting and harsh and cruel, it's like a wall he puts up to shield himself from the outside world, but with you around… it's almost as if we're getting a glimpse of what's beyond the wall."

Hermione didn't say anything, which was a first. Her mind was a whirl of mixed emotions and thoughts. There was no way Daphne was right. But after what Lockhart had said about the clashing of spells, and the looks… no. There was no way in Azkaban that she was even thinking about the possibility, let alone it actually happening.

Shaking her head, Hermione made a small noise of discontent. Slytherins were far more complicated then they looked and it certainly wasn't making this whole getting along thing any easier.

"Zabini? If I'm going to come out in this thing, you better have that bloody camera ready. There's no way I'm doing it twice."

Hermione grinned. Maybe the sight of Draco Malfoy in a dress would pull her from her dismal mood. But only if his hair was tussled in exactly the way she liked it. No. She never liked his hair, Hermione thought furiously. Even if it looked infuriatingly sexy when he accidently mussed it up.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Malfoy edged out of the dressing room, and to Hermione it seemed for the first time in his life he was slightly vulnerable. He had chosen the blue dress as the least revealing and walked out of the changing room cautiously, as if expecting to be ambushed at any minute.

"OOOH Draco how fabulous!" Daphne smirked.

"McGonagall is going to get herself in a right state when she watches this video mate. I might even turn for you… oh wait." Blaise grinned, filming the whole thing on the camcorder. "This thing doesn't do sound right?" he peered at it suspiciously.

Hermione laughed. She had given them all a crash course in how to work both the muggle camera and the muggle camcorder but only Daphne had seemed to understand in the slightest.

"Unfortunately for you, Blaise Zabini, that thing does indeed record sound," she giggled.

He groaned. "Well at least I won't be quite as embarrassed as Draco. Give us a spin then, dah-link."

Draco flushed. "No spins." he said quietly, glancing at Hermione.

"Why not Drakey?" cooed Daphne. "Aww come on, you look so adorable in that dress! Just one incey wincey spin?"

"You guys never know when to quit do you," he said, his voice deadly calm.

"Draco mate, it's just a bit of fun." Blaise tried to reason.

"For you maybe, you filthy queer. That's it, isn't it? It turns you on watching me in this dress." Draco spat, glaring at his best friend. He span on his heel, charging back into the furthest changing room and flinging the curtain across in rage.

Blaise stared open-mouthed after him, flushed with anger.

"How dare he." Daphne whispered. "How dare he."

"You know he didn't mean it." Hermione found herself saying, and the two Slytherins turned to look at her.

Daphne sighed. "He's getting worse and worse Hermione. Ever since the war, he doesn't tell us anything. Draco was never one for spilling secrets left right and centre, but now, he hardly speaks. He's blocking himself out from the rest of the world and hurting anyone who gets in his way, even his friends."

"I'll talk to him."

It was the most surprising thing she'd ever done in her life, and no one was more surprised than Hermione Granger herself.

"You can try," was all Daphne replied, before turning her attentions to Blaise who hadn't uttered a single word.

Hermione rose from the chair and walked to the changing room that Malfoy was in. She knocked on the side cautiously. "Malfoy?"

No response.

She tried again. "Draco?"

Slowly, the curtain in front of her moved slightly and she found herself looking into a pair of silver-grey eyes.

"Look Mal-Draco. We haven't always been the best of friends, we both know that. But Blaise and Daphne have, and right now, one of them is on the verge of tears, and that's thanks to you. I don't know what's going on in your life, but I can hazard a guess that it's not all sunshine and rainbows. That doesn't mean that you have the right to treat people who are trying to make it better like this. You don't have to build this wall of cruel, scathing remarks and pain."

"I know and I'm sorry. But I don't see what else I can do." His voice was low and gravelly.

"You could try Draco." This time when his name left her lips it didn't feel awkward and forced like the times before, but perfectly and utterly natural, as if she had said it a hundred times before and would say it a hundred times again.

This time when the silver eyes met hers they held a sliver of hope.

"They'll forgive you, you know. If you really were sorry."

He simply nodded, before ducking back inside the changing room.

As she turned to walk back to the others, she could have sworn she heard a voice that sounded a lot like a certain pale-haired Slytherin whisper his thanks from behind her.

But then again, with all the other strange things that had been going on today, that might well have been a hallucination.

Minutes later Draco appeared from the changing room, and Hermione excused herself to collect the dresses and return them to their racks. This was something that was best done Slytherin to Slytherin, even she could see that.

As she returned to from putting back both the pink and the blue, she walked into the changing room to find the last one she had tried missing from where she last put it.

Turning, she saw the three Slytherins smirking at her. Daphne handed her a black bag.

"Here. We couldn't have done this without you. You've held this team together, as crazy as that might sound, and we wanted to thank you," the Slytherin girl smiled.

"I…"

Blaise grinned. "There's no need to say anything Hermione. Thanks to you, Draco here has realised what a stupid prat he is and we're all happy families again."

Draco elbowed him in the ribs, and Blaise just smirked, rubbing the spot.

The pale-haired Slytherin didn't say anything, just nodded at Hermione, before clearing his throat. "What's next on the list?"

"Oooh yes the scavenger hunt! I almost forgot." Daphne said, pulling the crumpled list form her pocket.

They all looked at it carefully,

"Hermione, what is the makarehna?" Blaise asked and Hermione giggled at his strange pronunciation of the word.

"It's a kind of muggle dance, I guess you would say. People do it at parties in big groups, it's really fun!"

They all looked at her suspiciously.

"Oh come on. You liked the photo booth right? After I convinced you it wasn't going to eat you it was fun. I promise this will be too. How about we go to Oxford Street, that's a public place and I'm sure we can get a tourist to film us. Is that okay with everyone?"

"Sure," Blaise shrugged. "You know way more about this then we do. Lead on, Macduff."

Hermione laughed at his use of the muggle reference she had used earlier in the day, and he grinned back.

When the got to a place that they could apparate from, they did so, and appeared in a dark corner of Oxford Street. Checking no one had seen them, Hermione brushed off her jeans, which always seemed to get dusty whenever she apparated.

"Okay then Hermione, do you want to teach us this dance of yours," Daphne said. "I'll partner with Blaise and you can go with Draco." The Slytherin girl walked over to her partner and put a hand on his shoulder. He put his hand on her waist and then they joined there other hands, looking at Hermione expectantly.

The Gryffindor burst out laughing.

"This isn't a ballroom dance guys!" she chuckled.

"What do you mean it isn't a ballroom dance? What other types of dancing are there? Other than club dancing that is?" Blaise asked, confused.

"Watch and learn my friends, watch and learn." Hermione smirked. Pulling her mobile phone out of her pocket, she plugged it into her portable speakers and brought up the Macarena song on youtube.

'Dale a tu cuerpo alegria Macarena  
Que tu cuerpo es pa' darle alegria y cosa buena  
Dale a tu cuerpo alegria, Macarena  
Hey Macarena'

As the song played, Hermione started to dance. Her moves were small and shy at first, but as she got into it they became bigger and wilder.

"Come on you guys! It's fun! Just watch me. Arms out palms down, left, right. Flip them over, left, right. Cross them onto your shoulders, left, right. Uncross onto your head, left, right. Cross again onto your hips, left, right, uncross and back onto hips, left right. Shake and HEY MACARENA!"

The Slytherins were all looking at her with an expression of fear and bewilderment on their faces.

"Just give it a try. Please?" she asked.

To her surprise, they all started to attempt the dance, reluctantly and extremely badly at first. Daphne had most of the moves right, but her motions were jerky and out of time. Blaise was moving in time to the music but looked as if he had absolutely no clue what in the world was going on.

And then there was Draco.

He seemed as if he had done it all before. His motions were smooth and fluid, and he had all the moves memorised and exactly in time.

"Woah Malfoy, I didn't know you had it in you," she teased, and he smirked back.

"My family may be old-fashioned granger, but the one thing we do know how to do is dance. That, and we know how to look stunningly attractive, but I suppose you would call that more of a natural thing then a talent."

"Aaaand he's back," grinned Daphne. "Hermione, I don't know what it is your doing or how your doing it but keep doing it. It makes him a much more pleasant person.

Hermione chose to ignore that comment and instead corrected a couple of the other girl's moves. "You're doing really well but make sure you move your hands exactly in time to the beat."

She moved on to Blaise. "Okay, try and copy me. Left hand right hand, good, now flip them over, onto your shoulders, now your head, your hips, uncross them and HEY MACARENA!"

As she looked up her eyes met silver-grey and she found herself smiling. "That's really good Draco, just try to move your hips a bit more with each move. This is a latin dance, it's supposed to be fun."

He tried to copy her movements but on him they looked out of place.

"No, like this."

Before she knew what she was doing, Hermione had placed her hands on the Slytherin's hips and was moving them from side to side. His frame went rigid as he felt her hands on her, but after a couple of seconds he seemed to relax and tried to move with her.

"I… I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that." Hermione said as she realised what she'd just done. Stupid, stupid, stupid! What on earth was she thinking! This was Draco Malfoy for crying out loud! She retracted her hands faster then lightening, missing the look of knowing accompanied by a smirk that passed between Blaise and Daphne.

"It's okay," he said softly.

"Shall we do the dance now then? I think everyone knows the moves now." Hermione said, desperate to change the subject.

"Yes, I think we all know the moves now, Draco especially well thanks to your great one to one teaching." Daphne said cheekily.

"Daphne Greengrass how many times am I going to have to silence you for you to learn your lesson," Draco said with a flick of his wand.

Daphne opened her mouth but no sound came out, and in the end she gave up, crossing her arms in a huff.

"You know, I think I like you better like this." Blaise announced, and they all laughed.

"Wait here, I'll go find someone to film us," Hermione announced and she went off to look. She found a nice couple who agreed that they would film them dancing, and she gave the camera to the husband before going back to the group. Draco had lifted the silencing charm off Daphne and she caught the last few sentences of their conversation before they noticed her.

"All I'm saying is that you give her a chance. She's good for you Draco."

"That's all very well but she's Hermione fucking Granger, best friend of Potthead. There is no way in Azkaban she will do anything more than tolerate me, and besides, I don't like her."

"Oh Draco stop being so naïve if you'd just admit it to yourself and her I think you'd be sur- oh hi Hermione did you find someone?"

Hermione's eyes went from face to face in suspicion. What else had they been saying about her? Shaking it off, she smiled. She could deal with that later, but right now they had a dance to do.

"Yes, It's that couple over their." She gave them a wave, and they waved back. "There called Wendy and Graham Davenport and they're really nice."

Stepping back and into position she looked around to check that everyone was ready. Seeing that they were, she started the music and counted them in.

"1…2…3…4!"

 **A/N: Hi! i hope you have enjoyed this chapter along with the rest of the story so far. Please write a review on what you thought as it is greatly appreciated and really inspires me to write more! Thank you! More soon!**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

 **A/N: Hi guys! Sorry this update took so long coming compared to others, I've had a very busy week at school. Please please please leave a review telling me your thoughts on this chapter and the story as a whole as it is greatly appreciated and it really motivates me! Thank you!**

As the four of them danced, a crowd began to gather around them. People were smiling and clapping as they watched, and Hermione grinned as she moved to the music. Who would have known they'd be such a hit!

When the music came to the end, they all struck a fierce ending pose, laughing together, even Draco. The crowd clapped and cheered, and a few through some coins onto the floor at their feet.

As the coins landed on the street with a clink, all three Slytherins jumped back in shock, regarding the items with immense suspicion.

"Do you think they've cursed them?" Blaise whispered to Draco, who only shrugged, still glaring at the money.

Hermione burst out laughing.

"Guys, there is nothing wrong with the money. Look, see?" she bent down and retrieved a coin of the floor, holding it up for them to see.

"Don't touch that!" Draco exploded, knocking the coin out of Hermione's hand. "You don't know what they've done to it! Why else would they throw it on the floor directly in front of us? It's clearly some kind of trap!"

Still laughing, Hermione shook her head. "I forget that you guys really don't know anything about the muggle world. So in a big city like London, if someone is performing in the street it's courtesy to leave them a little money if you enjoyed the performance. I didn't think to tell you guys before because I didn't even imagine that people would do that for us."

Daphne nodded slowly in understanding. "So it's sort of like the thing where you leave money for the waitress in a restaurant."

"Exactly!" Hermione smiled. "And I promise that none of the money is cursed," she chuckled, glancing at Draco. He blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, it's just my nature. Suspect everything, trust nothing."

Hermione shrugged. "I suppose that's what it must be like in Slytherin. I never thought about it until now, but it must be quite a difficult house to live in, if you always have to watch your back like that."

Blaise smirked. "The Gryffindor princess feeling sorry for Slytherins? I never thought I'd see this day. I suppose you Gryffindor's think everyone is all happy families just like you lot, all cosying up together in the common room."

Hermione snorted. "Trust me, its not all happy families." She remembered all the arguments she'd had with Ron, all the times she'd told them off for not studying or doing something reckless. "The trouble is, some Gryffindor's are just too brave fro their own good."

All three Slytherin's smirked at her, and it was only then that she realised she had voiced her last thought out loud.

"No! I don't mean it like that! I love Harry and Ron as if they were my brothers, but it's just that sometimes they really don't think things through," she tried to make it seem better but the damage was already done.

"Who knew? The golden trio isn't all fun and games after all. Turns out that Potthead really does annoy everyone who ever existed, not just us Slytherins. Not to mention Weasel. He's going to get himself killed one day by his own stupidity." Draco smirked.

Daphne and Blaise laughed, but Hermione just frowned. She had thought that the Slytherin's were actually decent human beings, but now she wasn't so sure. Harry and Ron were her friends, couldn't her teammates see that by insulting them they were hurting her? Or maybe that was their intention all along, she thought silently. Pretend to be friends so their scathing remarks hurt even more.

Daphne frowned as she saw the look on Hermione's face. "Hermione? Come on, Draco was only kidding. Lighten up little."

"Granger, don't be upset, we were only teasing. Trust a Gryffindor like you to take things so seriously." Draco said.

"Oh, so it's back to Granger is it? What's next? Calling me mudblood again?" she spat, spinning on her heal and plunging into the throng of people making their way down the street.

"Hermione! Please! Come back!" she could hear them calling from behind her, but she ignored it, furiously brushing a stray tear from her cheek. She would not cry for them. She wouldn't let herself.

Hermione knew that she was overreacting but their comments hurt. She had thought they were beginning to accept her, Daphne and Blaise at least, but now she wasn't so sure.

One thing was for definite though; she was never going to let them in again. Who knew what their real motives were? This could be some elaborate plan to catch her off guard, make her do something reckless.

Diving down a side lane, she stopped when she felt she was out of site from the street and leant against the wall to compose herself. She would have to go back and find them, McGonagall would kill her if she left them in the middle of London all by themselves, but they could survive for a few more minutes on her own.

Hermione watched her reflection in a broken piece of mirror lying on the floor. With the back of her hand, she tried to wipe away any trace of the tears that had fallen down her face, just a voice cut across the street, a voice that made chills run down her spine, yet made her heart flutter all at the same time.

"Hermione."

She could here him moving towards her, even though his feet were softer than those of a cat on the cobbled street.

"We didn't mean it like that."

Something in his voice made her want to look up at him, but she stubbornly kept her eyes firmly trained on the ground.

"It's just how we are. Slytherin, it's different. If you show one ounce of weakness, they pounce, like vultures on a corpse. You might as well be dead."

She could imagine him running a hand through his hair, tussling it in frustration as he tried desperately hard to explain to her. Yet she still refused to meet his eye.

"Please 'Mione. I don't know if you mind me calling you that, and I'm sorry if you do, but I really don't know what else to say. I'm sorry."

Her lips curled into a small smile, and she turned slowly to look into his eyes. His usually steel orbs were a soft silver, looking almost remorseful. If Draco Malfoy could ever be remorseful

"Well well well. It turns out Draco Malfoy knows how to apologise. Who would have thought?"

He smirked at her. "I can surprise people, even you, Little Miss Know-It-All. There's things even you don't know about me."

Hermione usually hated it when anybody called her that, but coming from Draco it didn't sound like an insult, so she let it slip, along with his use of the nickname 'Mione earlier, which she detested. Again, coming from him, it sounded different.

No. Draco Malfoy was an evil little ferret, and it didn't matter how good it sounded when he said her name like that, because he was still a cruel and horrible person.

At least that's what Hermione tried to tell herself as she followed him out of the side street into the busy throng of London shoppers.

 **Another A/N: Hi guys! Same message as before, please leave a review! Hope you liked it, more coming soon!**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

When Hermione and Draco had finally located Daphne and Blaise, they only had around an hour left until they had to be back at the hotel. As they studied the list, Blaise whispered something to Draco with a grin, and the platinum blonde smirked as he nodded.

"Ladies, Draco and I have decided which one we are doing next, and there will be no arguing." Blaise announced, and Hermione and Daphne exchanged a look of apprehension mixed partially with fear.

"Which one of you would like to have your make-up done by myself and Draco, your make-up artists of the hour?" he asked with a smirk etched on his face.

The look the two girls were exchanging turned wholly to one of horror.

"Absolutely not," said Hermione at exactly the same time as Daphne exclaimed, "There is no way in Azkaban you two are coming anywhere near me with that sort of weapon."

"Great! Both you want to do it! How sporting of you." Blaise smirked even wider.

"Hermione, can you take us to a shop where we can get some of this make-up?" Draco asked her.

She sighed, resigning herself to a messy fate at the hands of the two boys.

"I suppose so, if you promise not to make me look to terrible," she tried to bargain, but they just laughed.

"I'll make no such promise. Now take me to a make-up shop." Draco smirked at her, folding his arms in a way that showed her it was completely futile to argue with him.

Folding his arms also defined his muscles, making Hermione appreciate how well formed the Slytherin actually was.

Not that Hermione was thinking about the ferret's body at all.

Five minutes later, Hermione found herself leading the three Slytherins into a Boots cosmetics store. Blaise and Draco grinned conspiratorially at each other before telling the girls to stay put at the entrance as they rushed off into the store.

"This is not going to be pretty. Pun not intended." Daphne grimaced at Hermione, who chuckled wryly.

"Let them do their worst. We have a video of Draco in a dress, I think we can out blackmail them in this one." Hermione smirked, remembering the events in the store.

"Spoken like a true Slytherin." Daphne laughed, just as the boys came out of the shop, clutching a bagful of cosmetics.

"Who's a true Slytherin?" Blaise asked, shoving his credit card back into the pocket of his jeans.

"Hermione, as it turns out." Daphne replied with a grin. "Which is just as well really. I'd hate for Draco to have to date a Gryff-"

Another silencing spell later and Daphne was moving her mouth furiously but no sound was coming out.

"Daphne Greengrass, when will you learn?" Draco sighed, twirling his wand. "I can't even begin to explain why that would never work, not in a million years."

Hermione chuckled behind him. "Yeah, apart from the constant fighting, trying to kill each other and hatred, we'd be the dream couple."

"You could just give it a try you know. I think you'd be surprised." Blaise piped up.

"I thought we said no more talks of relationships. It's futile anyway. Hermione and I are never going to get together. It's just not going to happen. Sorry to disappoint you guys and your weird vision." Draco said. "Now, shall we get on with this video? I've been looking forward to this one."

He released Daphne from the charm with a flick of this wand.

"Where is the best place for us to do this?" Blaise asked, looking at Hermione for guidance.

She considered his question carefully. What they needed was a place where they wouldn't be interrupted and could film the video in reasonable peace.

"Well, the most ideal place would be back at the hotel, but we don't really have time to go back there just for this one challenge as we still have others we need to do, so in that case I think it would be best if we were to apparate to Hyde Park. We could find a secluded corner and make the video without any interruption, although we'd have to be careful what we say as there will be muggles around."

The three Slytherins nodded in agreement, and a few minutes later they all found themselves landing in a woodsy spot in the middle of the park. Hermione spotted a muggle couple jogging towards them, and she hastily pulled the three Slytherins into a bush, ducking down.

"Hey! What are you doing!?" Blaise exclaimed as she grabbed the back of his shirt and yanked him in.

"Be quiet!" she hissed. "Don't you think those muggles might be a little surprised to see us suddenly appear in the middle of the park?"

"But-" Blaise began, but Draco cut clean across him.

"Zabini, just shut it."

It was then that Hermione realised how close he was behind her. She became overly aware of how her back was pressed up against his chest, his chin resting almost on her head. In her haste to get them out of sight she hadn't thought about the close quarters at which they would have to crouch in order not to be seen.

Hermione tried to ignore her body, which was screaming at her to lean back just a little more, right into Draco's waiting arms. Mind over matter, mind over matter, she chanted inside her head, trying desperately to ignore the feeling. Unfortunately, it seemed that Daphne had other ideas, as with a small smirk, she shifted her foot, banging it deliberately into Hermione's, throwing the Gryffindor off balance. Whirling her arms wildly as she attempted to stay upright, she fell backwards with an oof into Draco.

Suddenly, strong arms were encircling her, helping her gently back onto her feet.

"You okay?" a low voice asked softly, close to her ear, and Hermione almost jumped in shock.

"Yes thank you," she practically whispered, her mouth suddenly very dry, and her heart was pounding like crazy.

"You sure?" he asked, pushing a strand of her hair behind one of her ears. "Because I can hear your heart hammering like mad." He murmured the last sentence into her ear so only she could hear, and Hermione flushed a brilliant shade of scarlet.

"Everything alright there Hermione?" Blaise asked with a smirk. "You're so red that you could replace that lion as the new Gryffindor mascot, if you died your hair gold."

"I'm fine thank you. Do you think those muggles have gone? We still need to do that video," she said, desperate to change the subject.

All three Slytherins smirked at her knowingly, and she cursed herself inside for being so obvious. Damn those infernal Slytherins for being so perceptive, and damn her for being so easy to read!

Disentangling herself from Draco, she peaked out of the undergrowth, extremely relieved to see that there was no one in sight. Turning back to convey the news to the others, she could have sworn that the platinum blonde looked almost put out that she had removed herself from his embrace.

It wasn't an embrace, she told herself fiercely. And besides, even if it had been she most certainly wouldn't have liked it. She would never like anything that ferret did.

At least, that was what she tried to tell herself.

Standing up, she strode out of the bushes, and her teammates followed behind her. When they found a more secluded spot, they sat down and Blaise and Draco grinned, a disturbing glint in their eyes.

"Ready to get started?" Blaise smirked.

Hermione groaned, and Daphne had the same reaction beside her.

"Oh come on girls, you're going to look fab-u-lous!" Draco squealed, doing an extremely good imitation of Daphne.

"Okay, stop. You are the second person to imitate me today and I don't appreciate it." Daphne frowned as the others laughed, but it was clear to see that she also was trying her hardest not to burst out with giggles.

"Okay, so Draco and I are going to take it in turns to put this stuff on you whilst the others records it with the camera." Blaise grinned, brandishing the video camera that he had retrieved from his pocket. He handed it to Draco.

"Ready?" the blonde asked, holding it up and turning the device on.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Hermione sighed, turning to face Blaise as Daphne did the same. He was watching them with a malicious grin on his face, holding a wand of mascara out in front of him like it was some kind of weapon.

He went for Daphne first. She squealed as he tried to brush the black liquid onto her lashes, missing with most of it, and it ended up all over her cheeks.

"Hmm. I'm not really seeing how this is making you look any better. What else have we got?" he asked as he rummaged through the bag.

Deciding on an instrument of torture, he turned towards Hermione and began to apply some bronzer to her forehead. Next her got some foundation and applied two peachy circles to her cheeks, biting his lip to avoid laughing as he worked.

Draco chuckled from behind the camera.

"I think it's your turn now Draco mate. Come and show the girls how good you are at painting." Blaise announced, stepping back to admire his own handiwork.

The Slytherins passed the camera from one to another, and then Draco selected a few things from the bag before starting on Daphne. When he leaned back a few minutes later, Hermione couldn't help but let out a giggle, Daphne looked so ridiculous. Draco had drawn her eyebrows into high arcs with some pink eyeshadow, and her cheeks were covered in brown dots that could almost pass for freckles, if it weren't for the way they were circled in blue. But the funniest part was how he had turned her nose a particually fetching shade of green through the use of more eyeshadow and some mint-tinted BB cream.

"I wouldn't be laughing so soon, Hermione, it's your turn now," Draco smirked as he moved over to her. He picked up a blue eyeliner and Hermione braced herself for the worst.

When he finished doing whatever he had done with that, he picked up some foundation that looked like it was the same colour as the orange juice Hermione had had for breakfast this morning. He spread a little on his finger and she gulped as he went to put it on her face, but to her surprise his touch was soft, and she found herself enjoying the feeling.

No Hermione, you are not enjoying this, she muttered to herself, gritting her teeth as she tried to convince herself of that.

A few minutes later he was finished, and Hermione could relax again as he was no longer so close. He had this effect on her, she just couldn't seem to function properly when he was around.

"Ready to see your new and improved selves?" Blaise smirked conspiratorily, producing a mirror from inside the bag. He handed it to Daphne first, and the girl shrieked as she saw what they had done to her face.

"You gits! How could you do this! I am never trusting you again, and I mean it this time!"

They laughed and Blaise waggled the camera.

"By the way, we didn't mention before but we decided it would be nice to film your reactions. Put an interesting twist on this video," he laughed, and Daphne lunged at him, trying to wrestle the camera from his hands.

"Daphne don't do that! We still need to film Hermione's reaction!" Blaise said as he tried to get the camera back off the other Slytherin.

"Ready Hermione?" he grinned, handing her the mirror, having finally regained control of the device.

"I suppose," she sighed, taking it from him with a mixture of fear and apprehension as her three teammates watched her like hawks for her reaction.

Holding the mirror aloft in front of her face, she gasped at her reflection. She was a picture, and most definitely not a pretty one. Her face was orange, and she had blue dots covering her chin and the tip of her nose. Red lipstick was smeared under her eyes and the white circles on her cheeks looked like holes in her face compared to the orange.

"I swear to merlin I am going to kill the both of you!" she shrieked.

The boys were roling on the floor laughing, and Hermione had to admit that Draco looked very cute when he showed this side of him.

Not Cute. Ferrets are never cute, she reminded herself, just as she heard a voice behind her call her name.

"Hermione? Is that you?"

Turning to face them, Hermione's mouth dropped open as she came face to face with the last person she expected to see.

 **A/N: Sorry to leave you on such a cliffhanger! Any guesses as to who it could be? Leave your thoughts in a review, it is greatly appreciated/**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

"It is! Fancy seeing you here! What is that you've got on your face?"

Hermione groaned as she realised that she was still covered in make-up from the boys makeover session as she clambered up off the floor and ran over to hug her friend.

"Kasey! I haven't seen you in so long, what are you doing in London?" she exclaimed as the girl pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I know, it must have been at least a year. Gosh you've grown. You're hair looks so nice Hermione. When did you get it cut?"

"Oh, a couple of weeks back. I've had it like this for a while now though. Has it really been that long? Blimey, time flies doesn't it."

Hermione had met Kasey when she started primary school, and the two had been best friends ever since. They did everything together, and even when Hermione went off to Hogwarts, she and Kasey still kept in touch. Hermione remembered the good times they'd had together fondly, and always tried to find time to meet up with her whenever she was home from school.

"So why are you in London then?" Kasey asked, drawing Hermione out from her memories.

"Oh, it's just a school project thing. Getting acclimatized in the real world, or something like that." The lie flew off her tongue automatically, though she cringed inwardly at the fact that she couldn't be truthful with her.

"I see. Well, I'm up here for a couple of days with Jack. I told you about him in my letters, remember? Anyway he and I have been seeing each other since last October, and he had a gig near here so I thought I'd come for a walk whilst he and the rest of the boys were setting up. It never even crossed my mind that I'd run into you!"

Hermione laughed, happy for her friend. "Well I'm glad you decided to come to the park or I never would have seen you. We weren't even planning on coming here!"

Kasey nodded, before raising an eyebrow and looking over Hermione's shoulder. "I see." She lowered her voice slightly before continuing. "And now can you please explain to me why you have refrained from mentioning the God who is standing behind you. I demand introductions and you will spill all later."

Hermione chuckled at her friend, who was ever the same as she remembered her, before turning around to introduce the Slytherins.

"Daphne, Blaise, Draco, this is Kasey Lane, one of my friends from Primary School," she said, trying to put emphasis on the last two words to convey the message that she was a muggle.

"Kasey, these are some of my friends from school. Meet Daphne Greengrass,"

The Slytherin girl smiled warmly at Kasey and she returned it.

"Blaise Zabini,"

Blaise winked confidently, and Kasey laughed, before blowing a kiss back.

"Kasey, I'm going to save you the trouble with this next sentence. The Italian Stallion is Gay. Moving on."

Kasey pouted. "Sorry sweetheart." Blaise grinned.

"and, this is Draco Malfoy."

Draco smiled at her charmingly, and Kasey smiled back, biting her lip. Hermione felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach as she watched the two exchange pleasantries flirtatiously.

There is no way in Azkaban I am jealous, she thought to herself, gritting her teeth. Besides. Kasey has a boyfriend, and it sounds like she's very happy.

Kasey turned to look at her, eyes shining.

"Are you going to explain why you look like a blind person has done your make-up now?" she grinned.

Hermione groaned again. "Blame those two," she said, pointing an accusing finger at Blaise and Draco, who both smirked, obviously extremely pleased with themselves.

"Do you two want a hand getting it off?," she asked, looking between Daphne and Hermione. "I have a load of make-up remover in my bag, because Jack's manager makes the boys wear make-up in their shows, and he hates it with a passion. It's off his face a minute after he comes off stage."

"Yes, please. You're a life-saver!" Daphne exclaimed.

"Then perhaps you'd let me do your make-up properly? Pretty please? I've just started my training to be a proper make-up artist, Hermione I told you about it in my last letter, though I don't know if you'll have got it yet. I promise I'll do it nicely."

Daphne looked at Hermione quickly for conformation that this was indeed true. When the Gryffindor nodded at her, she smiled, and turned back to Kasey.

"That would be great! Hermione, I never knew muggles could be so nice! If only my parents could see this, they'd surely-" Daphne stopped short, a horrified look on her face.

Kasey frowned. "What's a muggle?" she asked.

Daphne flushed, a thing Hermione had never seen the Slytherin do. It looked odd and out of place on her face, as she began to stutter an excuse.

"Oh, it's just what we call people who don't go to school with us. Stupid really." Hermione said quickly, and Daphne shot her a grateful look.

Kasey scrutinized them warily.

"I feel like there's something I'm missing here."

"Stop worrying." Hermione chastised. "Honestly, you're such a worryguts. And you're always the one telling me to live a little!"

Kasey laughed. "Well, I'll give you that. Sometimes Hermione, you walk around like you've got a stick up your arse, no offence."

Hermione smiled. Kasey was one of the few people who could make fun of her bookworm status and live to tell about it.

"You know me so well. Now, how about you help me get all this gunk off my face then? Though I'm making no promises that I'll let you do my make-up after. We're on a pretty tight schedule."

"Ever Little-Miss Organised I see. Sit down then."

A couple of minutes later, Kasey had wiped the make-up off her friends face and was now doing the same for Daphne. Hermione grinned as she watched the two of them conversing as if they had known each other forever, and she didn't notice Blaise approaching her until he plonked himself down next to her.

She jumped. "Gosh Blaise! Don't sneak up on me like that! You'll scare me to death."

He grinned crookedly at her.

"Sorry Hermione, Slytherins are sneaky like that. They creep up behind you and it's like bam, suddenly they're there, when you least expect it."

"I suppose it's just what you do," she smiled.

"Yes. It's a little like love I suppose. Creeping up on you like you least expect it." Blaise grinned at her slyly.

Hermione sighed. "I've told you before and I'll tell you again, Blaise Zabini. Draco and I are never going to get together. No true love, no heart-stopping romance. Sorry to disappoint you."

Blaise just smirked. "Who said I was talking about you and Draco? You came up with that one all by yourself."

He jumped up and ambled over to Draco still smirking as he left Hermione thinking over what he had just said.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"There! What do you think!" Kasey leaned back from Daphne to survey her handiwork. Turning to the two boys and Hermione, she waited for their comments.

"Err…" said Blaise.

"Well…" said Draco.

"She looks amazing!" exclaimed Hermione.

And the Slytherin girl truly did. Kasey had used highlighting and shadowing to bring out the natural contours in her face. The porcelain colour of her skin was illuminated, highlighting the platinum streaks in her long blonde hair. Her eyeliner and mascara set off her green eyes, making them sparkle in the light. The lipstick the muggle girl had chosen to finish the look was a pale pink, contrasting nicely with her emerald eyes.

"Well, at least someone can appreciate my artistry!" Kasey said pointedly, but she grinned as she said it.

"I'm sure she looks amazing, but the thing is, we see Daph everyday, looking like something the cat dragged in in the morning, she's like a sister to us." Blaise explained. "Maybe if you did Hermione you'd get more of a reaction."

Draco snorted before he could help himself. "Hermione doesn't need all that shit on her face. Just look at her, she's already…"

Daphne smirked wickedly. "Already what Draco?"

"Already so ugly that it wouldn't make a difference." Draco bit back defensively.

Hermione blinked back angry tears. "Was that really necessary?" she asked quietly, turning away so they wouldn't see her upset.

"Now look here." Kasey stepped forward, squaring up to Draco, which was a funny sight seeing as she was only five foot two and the boy was well over six foot. "I don't know you at all, but let me make this clear to you. No one, even someone as handsome as you, insults Hermione like that. Not only was it immature and petty, it was also a complete lie. Hermione is gorgeous, and I can tell from the looks you've been giving her that you very well know it."

Draco drew a breath and opened his mouth, ready to fight back, but the muggle girl wasn't having any of it.

"No. No arguing. What's going to happen is this. You," she pointed at Draco, "are going to apologise. Then, the four of you are going to finish as many tasks as you can, because if I know one thing about Hermione, it's that she doesn't like to lose. Is that understood?"

The three Slytherins nodded mutely. Daphne and Blaise were grinning like crazy people, whilst Draco looked as if he didn't know quite what to make of this pint-sized barrel of fierce.

Kasey turned back to Hermione, pulling her friend into a fierce hug. "Don't listen to him. I have no idea what his problem is, other than the fact that he's clearly in love with you. I don't know how you feel about him, but don't do anything I wouldn't do, okay?"

Hermione giggled. "So I can do pretty much anything then?"

"Oi. I'm not a slag if that's what you're trying to imply, missy. Besides, I have a boyfriend now, so it's best behaviour," she grinned.

"I'm not saying you're a slag. A slut maybe, but definitely not a slag," Hermione chuckled.

"Hmmm. Fair enough I suppose," Kasey chuckled back, and soon the two were in fits of laughter.

The three Slytherins watched their exchange in amusement.

Suddenly Kasey glanced at her watch and swore colourfully. "Sorry Hermione, but I've got to run. Jack's rehearsal ended ten minutes ago. How long did you say you were in London for?"

"Until the start of summer, a while," Hermione replied.

"Great! Let's get dinner sometime then. You can bring Blondie and the Italian Stallion. And Mr-up-himself if he promises to behave."

"Sure. Just text me when you have some dates. I can't believe I actually saw you!" Hermione exclaimed, pulling her friend in for another quick hug.

"Of course. Love you Hermione. Bye! It was nice to meet you all. Well. Some of you." Kasey waved as she walked briskly away.

Hermione was still smiling when she turned back to face her teammates.

"Well, I think it's clear to say why you two are friends." Blaise said, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Hermione frowned.

"You're both scary fierce!" Daphne laughed. "No, don't look like that, it's meant as a compliment honest," she added hastily when she saw the look on Hermione's face. "You don't let anyone push you around, you do your own thing."

"Thanks, I think…" Hermione laughed.

"Right, shall we get on with the remaining tasks then? I'd hate for Little-Miss-Scary to come back and find out we'd done nothing." Blaise mock shivered.

"Sure, what shall we do?" Draco asked, finally saying something.

Daphne produced the list from her pocket, and scanned it thoughtfully. "Well, we need to do something with a trolley, we need an unknown couple telling the story of how they met, we need a hug from a stranger, a person called Lucy, and all of us in the dark with flashlights." She looked up at Hermione. "What is a drive-thru? Is it some kind of anger management centre where you can crash and drive through things to let off steam?"

Hermione cracked up, laughing so hard she could hardly breath.

"What?" frowned the Slytherin girl.

"Sorry!" she gasped, fighting back her giggles. "It's, it's just, a drive-thru is a fast food place, like the one we went to before, except you drive up to a hatch to order and receive your food, rather than going in. Definitely not an anger management centre!"

All three of her teammates began to laugh when they realised Daphne's mistake.

"That's hilarious Daph!" Blaise snorted. "Though to be fair, I had no idea what it was either."

"Shut it, mister." Daphne punched her friend lightly on the shoulder, and he cried out in mock pain.

"Oh ruthless, cruel woman."

Draco cleared his throat. "I don't know about you, but I'm rather partial to winning, so if we could get on…"

"Okay then, shall we do the drive-thru one then?" Hermione asked, and they nodded.

"We'll have to apparate to one. I think there's one near my house, so we could apparate to there, because I think I also have a 2010 calendar. Kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes."

The group joined hand, and Hermione visualised her house clearly in her head as she shouted her address.

Seconds later they appeared in the back garden of her house, all landing on their feet for once.

"Right," said Hermione as she brushed her skirt off. "Follow me."

She unlocked her back door using the key in the flowerpot, and led the group into her house. The three purebloods looked around in wonder, most of them never having been into a muggle house before.

"Are those pictures not moving?" asked Daphne, her eyes widening.

Hermione nodded in confirmation, and the girl's mouth dropped open.

"I've heard about that, but I didn't think it was really true," Blaise admitted. "I mean, how could a photo not move?"

"I know my aunt's a muggle, but I've never actually been to her house. I haven't even met her. Father didn't approve." Daphne frowned.

"What did you say your parents did Hermione?" Blaise asked.

"They're dentists," she replied, and explained when he gave her a look of utter bewilderment. "They're sort of healers, but the specialise in teeth."

"Ah, I see." The look of complete confusion still etched on his face showed that he clearly didn't.

"Okay then. Daphne, Blaise, if you have a look in that cabinet to your left you should find an old calendar from 2010. Mum likes to keep them, God knows why. I'm just going to run upstairs, because I think I might have a kazoo kicking around somewhere in my room. I'll be back in a minute."

She walked up the stairs and into her bedroom. The room wasn't girly, with its plain white walls and simple oak furniture, but it was very Hermione. Against one wall stood an enormous bookcase, crammed from top to bottom with all kinds of books, ranging from novels to factual to magical. She smiled as she breathed in the familiar smell of ink on paper; really, it was like walking into a library.

Hermione bent down to rummage through the contents at the bottom of her wardrobe. She was so engrossed in the task that she didn't here the footsteps on the floorboards as someone entered the room.

"Is this you?" the person asked quietly, and she jumped about three foot in the air in surprise. Turning, she glared at the platinum blonde, who was holding a photo of her when she was aged around seven. It had been taken on a sunny day, and she and her parents had gone to the seaside. They'd let her have a rare ice cream, and by the looks of the photo she had enjoyed it immensely, as she had spread the majority of it all over herself.

"Merlin Draco! You nearly gave me a heart attack. And yes, that is me."

He said nothing in reply, only set the photo back down in its place on her dressing table.

They stood in silence for what seemed like forever. Silver eyes stared into brown, and Hermione felt her heart flutter.

Finally he broke the silence.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I said I'm sorry. For what I said earlier. I didn't mean it you know. You're… you're beautiful Hermione."

She couldn't remember stepping forward, but suddenly the gap between them had closed. Looking down at her face, he felt a strange urge to sweep her off her feet and run far away with her so they could be alone forever. Instead, he settled for sweeping a small piece of her unruly hair up in his fingertips and tucking it gently behind one ear.

"It's okay," she whispered, and closed her eyes, wishing for some absurd reason that he would kiss her.

The same thought ran through Draco's head, and before he knew what he was doing, he leaned forward, and his lips met hers.

 **A/N: Hi guys! Sorry to leave you on a kinda cliffhanger, but now I have two stories on the go I find that I have zero time! Please check out my other story, It's only one chapter at the moment but I am going to write more, whilst definitely continuing with this one. It's called Slytherin's Golden Girl, so give it a read and tell me what you think in a review!**

 **As always, please also review this chapter and tell me what you think! It's greatly appreciated!**


	15. Chapter 15

ChapterFifteen

 **Hello! I'm sorry that this took sooooo long to update but you'll hopefully be pleased to know that I am back and inspired to write lots more on this and my other story!**

 **A/N – I'm looking for a beta author if anyone is interested. Please pm me! I am open to an arrangement where we beta each other's works, and am looking for someone fun, creative and non-judgemental to check my work for errors and give me advice on where to go next.**

Their kiss seemed to last for an eternity yet only seconds at the same time. To Hermione's surprise, his lips were soft and gentle on her own, and as she closed her eyes, she took a breath, inhaling his scent. He smelt of freshly mown grass and parchment, two completely ordinary things, but she knew that this kiss was one of the most extraordinary, in fact, the most extraordinary of her life so far.

And then he pulled away.

The warm feeling that had been travelling through her body stopped abruptly as her eyes travelled to rest on his face. His grey eyes seemed to pierce into her own, and the breath hitched in her throat as she gasped softly.

An indiscernible emotion flashed across his eyes and he turned away, exhaling as he ran a hand through his hair.

She was the one to break the silence.

"Why did you do that?"

Although she tried to act as if his lips hadn't affected her at all, she could hear the breathy edge to her voice and she knew that he could to. It didn't matter. After a few seconds, when he finally replied, his voice was low and gravelly, also tinged with a hint of breathlessness.

"I don't know."

Abruptly, he turned and moved from the room so quickly if Hermione had blinked she'd have missed him. He was half way down the stairs by the time she had even reached the doorframe.

"Draco!?"

Hermione exclaimed, confusion, then anger flashing across her mind. Why was he reacting like this? Was her kissing technique so abysmal that it made him run faster than she'd ever seen a human being move? What was wrong with him? And lastly, what was wrong with her?

Why did she even care at all?

Stupid, conceited, selfish, gorgeous, ferret.

Hermione balled her hand into a fist, smacking it down against the railing of the bannister. She let out a long, drawn breath, before slowly making her way downstairs.

Daphne looked up as she entered the room, waving a calendar at her wildly. "Look!" she exclaimed proudly. "I found it! This is so exciting! None of the pictures move at all, not even when I shake it."

Hermione couldn't help but grin, despite the turmoil of emotion she was feeling inside. "That's great Daphne. Listen, do you think you could go up to my room and finish looking for that Kazoo? I know it's in my wardrobe somewhere. I need to go and find…"

Daphne smirked. "You need to go and find your little blonde almost boyfriend. Sure, I'm on it." she laughed at Hermione's face, running up the stairs before the Gryffindor could do anything about it.

Hermione smiled softly, shaking her head as she walked through into the kitchen. From there she could see Draco and Blaise sitting together at her garden table, talking in low voices. Draco ran a hand through his hair, and looked away from Blaise towards the house. His silver grey eyes met hers, and flashed with an indiscernible emotion. Hermione blushed and looked away, before frowning. Why should he get to make her feel like she'd done something wrong? He'd kissed her, for Merlin's sake! With that thought in mind, she marched out into the garden and sat down right next to him, managing just about to smile at Blaise.

"So what's left on the list? And how long have we got left?" she asked, completely interrupting whatever conversation they had been having. And who even cared? Not her, she decided. Hermione was so done. She just wanted to get this ghastly hunt over and done with so she could get back to the hotel and get some rest.

"Well, you have the list." Blaise grinned at her, leaning back on his chair.

"Oh yes, of course. Sorry." Hermione laughed, completely ignoring the blonde sitting next to her.

Draco let out a soft groan as she laughed. What in Azkaban was he doing? How had he let it get to this? He was a wreck! And over a filthy mudblood at that!

Hermione placed the list on to the table between the trio and she and Blaise leaned in to look over it. "If Daphne finds the kazoo, all that's left of the items is a girls phone number. And then we need a picture of a person called Lucy, someone hugging a stranger and all of us with flashlights. Lastly, two more videos; the drive-thru one, and an unknown couple telling the story."

She glanced at her watch, and her eyes grew wide. "We only have 50 minutes left. That's time to do the drive-thru. We can see if there is a couple in there who are willing to tell us their story. I'm sure one of you two can get a girls number, and anyone can hug a stranger. Who knows, maybe even a stranger called Lucy."

"That would be awfully convenient." Blaise laughed.

Suddenly, a voice called down excvitedly from an upstairs window.

"Hermione! Is this a Kazoo?" Daphne yelled, holding up a hole punch."

Hermione chuckled. "Not quite!" she called back. "You're looking for something orange which when you blow into it makes a weird noise!"

Daphne disappeared for a second, before returning to the sill, this time holding something far more promising. "Like this?"

"Exactly! Great work. Now let's get out of here."

They gathered in the kitchen, Hermione ticking off the calendar and the kazoo from their list.

"Everyone ready to go? The drive thru is literally a minute or two away."

Daphne and Blaise nodded, and walked towards the front door. Hermione turned to grab her key off of the hall table, but found herself staring directly into a grey-clad chest. An extremely muscular looking, grey-clad chest, that had Hermione feeling a little wobbly at the knees.

"Get it together." She told herself.

"Sorry?" He asked, his voice low and gravelly like before.

Hermione flushed. "Nothing." she whispered, averting her eyes as she walked around him to take her key off the table. By the time she turned around he was already out the front door.

The walk to the drive thru took them only a minute and a half. Luck was with the four of them, as just before they approached the doors, Blaise spotted an abandoned trolley in a nearby hedge. "Hey, this may be the coincidence of coincidences, but isn't that a shopping trolley, over there?" he asked Hermione.

"Yes! That's great, now we can do the video. Who wants to do it?" she asked, glad to have something to distract her from the awful mess things had become.

Daphne and Blaise looked at each other. "I'm game if you are," she grinned, and he smirked in reply. "Come on then Greengrass."

They went off to grab the trolley, and Hermione fumbled with the catch on the video camera, which for some reason was refusing to open. "Come on," she urged it, frustrated.

Suddenly a hand was over hers, gently prizing the camera from her grasp. "Let me." Draco said quietly, flipping the catch open first time. She took it back from him quickly, looking at the ground. "Thanks."

They stood in awkward silence for a minuet or two before Hermione finally broke it, fed up. "Malfoy what the fuck was that? You cannot just kiss me and then act like nothing ever happened and that we aren't even friends, let alone friends who kissed! This is so childish, and frankly completely ridiculous."

Malfoy turned to look at her sharply. "I kissed you? From where I was standing, you were the one who kissed me. I just came to help you look for your fucking kazoo, useless piece of shit that turned out to be."

Hermione felt anger flare up inside of her. "Excuse me! That's not what you said afterwards. We both know that it was you who kissed me, so stop denying it. Merlin, you Slytherin's with your goddamn pride."

"Sorry, what's this about a kiss?" Daphne practically screeched from across the car park. "I knew it! I knew you liked each other!"

Hermione turned to see her excitedly pumping her fist in the air from wear she was seated inside the shopping trolley, Blaise pushing it along from behind, shaking his head.

"I'm done." Malfoy said sharply. "Let me know when you all decide to stop shitting around. I'm going." He turned to face Hermione, silver eyes burning like molten platinum. "And don't you ever, EVER, mention anything that happened today again." With that, he span on his heel and stalked away from the car park around the corner, and the three stood still and silent as they heard him apparate away with a small pop.

Hermione turned slowly to the two Slytherins who remained, and searched their faces for any clue of what exactly the three of them were supposed to do next.

 **There you go guys! I hope you enjoyed it! I will hopefully be updating this story regularly now, and just another reminder that I am looking for a beta, so please pm me!**

 **As always, reviews are greatly appreciated!**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

 **A/N: Hey guys, here is the next chapter! I have written a lot more recently so hopefully updates will be swift and the rest of the story will be up soon! I hope you enjoy this new chapter and yeah, that's about it.**

 **I'm also still looking for a beta, so if anyone is interested please pm me!**

Eventually, Daphne sighed, breaking the icy silence. "Well. To be honest I'm not sure what I expected. I mean, Draco is a Malfoy. Overreacting and storming out dramatically is like, his thing." She shook her head, chuckling slightly.

Blaise turned to look at Hermione. "Don't worry about it. He'll come around. From the way he was acting after, at the bench, it must have been one hell of a kiss."

I can agree with that, thought Hermione, before frowning angrily. No, it wasn't. Malfoy was an arrogant, conceited prick, and she most certainly had not enjoyed kissing him.

Blaise raised an eyebrow at her silence, and he and Daphne shared a look, which went unnoticed by the Gryffindor, who was too lost in her own thoughts.

"Well, I vote we carry on here, and then go back to the hotel. He'll have cooled off by then." Blaise offered, suddenly jolting the trolley forward and causing Daphne to shriek loudly from where she was sitting inside it. He laughed out loud, and ran off towards the window, beckoning for Hermione to follow him.

She shook her head, chuckling, before breaking into small jog to catch up with them. As they reach the counter, she pulls out the video camera, and records the hilarious interaction the two Slytherins have with the counter staff.

"Hermione, what do you want?" Blaise shouted, turning to look at her.

"Uhhh… Can I get a Bacon Cheddar McChicken with small fries? Oh, and a small coke zero."

The look on Blaise's face was one of pure shock and amazement.

"What?" Hermione asked, confused. Did she say something wrong? Did Slytherins not eat chicken? Was coke zero banned?

"Daphne did you hear that?" Blaise muttered to the blonde. "Huh?" she asked, looking around at him, and the same look of shock came over her features when he repeated Hermione's menu choice.

"What?!" Hermione repeated, confused and now slightly angry. "I don't understand!"

"It's just…" Daphne trailed off. "That's exactly what Draco eats. Exactly."

Hermione felt a shiver run down her spine at the mention of his name. And here she was, thinking they were polar opposites. Every hour it seemed, she would learn something new that turned what she thought she knew upside down.

"Well, let's get him some then." She replied eventually, trying to pass it off as nothing, but she and the two Slytherin's all knew it was more than that.

Then Hermione remembered that she had the video camera on. She closed it with a loud snap, causing Daphne to jump.

"I'll wait for you guys inside." Hermione said, adding a smile as an attempt to seem less rattled. It didn't work.

She walked across the car park towards the door to the establishment, her head a whirlwind of unwanted thoughts. Why was she reacting in such an in sanely unreasonable manner? This was utterly ridiculous! Draco Malfoy! Who on earth did he think he was?

She shook her head vigorously, as if trying to sake all thoughts of him from her brain, and pushed open the door. Hermione was so lost in her speculations that she whacked it straight into an old lady, who was bending over to put her tray back into the holder.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry!" Hermione gasped, rushing over to help her up from the ground. "I feel so awful, my attention was so elsewhere I didn't even see you!"

The lady smiled up at her with a twinkle in her eye. "A young lad?"

"What?"

"A young lad, that's what's on your mind, isn't it. You can tell you know. Your cheeks are all flushed and you can see it in your eyes."

Hermione opened how mouth to tell the lady how ridiculous she was being, but no sound came out.

The old lady chuckled, and Hermione held out a hand to help her up from the floor.

"I've seen it before and no doubt I'll see it again. You youngsters think we old people know nothing, but we were young once. See that fellow, sat over there?" she asked Hermione, pointing to where a little way away, an old man sat by himself at a table. "That's my husband. Sixty years, we've been together. So don't you go telling me I don't know a thing about love."

"I… I wasn't going to." Hermione said uncertainly.

"Well then, that's a first. Now come on over here and sit yourself down. You look like you need some caffeine and a pair of ears. No, no arguing, off we go."

Despite her protests, Hermione found herself being herded towards the table where the old lady's husband sat. She was sat down, given a cup of coffee and found herself pouring her heart out before she even knew what was going on.

"And the thing is, I know I shouldn't like him, and I don't like him, because he's so infuriating and dreadful, but I can't help but wonder…" she trailed off as she saw Blaise and Daphne enter, looking for her.

"Wonder what, sweetie?" asked the woman, and Hermione realised that she didn't even know her name.

"Gryffindor! There you are! Oh, you found a couple for the video! Good thinking!"

She had forgotten all about the scavenger hunt, she realised as they made their way towards her, arms laden with food. Draco fucking Malfoy. Why did he have this, this effect on her that made her forget entirely about everything in the most annoying and frustrating way possible?

Snap out of it, she told herself.

The old woman raised an eyebrow at the latest arrivals. "This him then?"

"Who? Oh, no. No. This is Blaise, he's just a friend."

Daphne plonked herself down next to Hermione and smiled at the old couple. "Hi there! I'm Daphne! I suppose Hermione is talking to you about the video we have to do for the scavenger hunt?"

A look of surprise went across the old ladies features, but she smiled brightly back at Daphne, and went right along with it. Hermione felt a ripple of relief run down her spine. She knew she had said too much, and let her… something run away with her. She wouldn't say heart. Because there was no atom whatsoever in her heart that felt anything but hatred for Draco Malfoy.

"Oh yes, she was just about to film us. Tell me again dear, what was the question?" she asked, winking inconspicuously at Hermione.

"Could you please tell us the story of how you two met?" she said gratefully, opening the catch on the video camera and pressing the record button.

"Well, it goes something like this. We both went to the same boarding school, but were in separate houses, and had friends who despised each other. Then one night, on a prank gone wrong, one of his group managed to knock me unconscious with a plank meant for my then boyfriend. I was there completely by chance and was only in a nightie and hair curlers."

Her husband chuckled as he interjected. "I went over to see if she was alright, and the first thing she does as she comes round is punch me straight in the nose. Safe to say we both had to go to the infirmary."

"You stayed with me all night, even after they sorted out your nose."

"You never apologised for that, you know," he smiled at her teasingly, his eyes bright.

"Well, I think I've made up for it, wouldn't you say?" she chuckled, looking up at him.

"Awww, that's so adorable!" Daphne exclaimed, clapping her hands. "Thank you so much!"

Hermione smiled at the couple as she put away the video camera. "Yes, thank you very much. That's nearly everything on the list now."

"That's all right my dears. I'm always ready to help, and always ready to lend an ear." She looked meaningfully at Hermione, who blushed. "And I'd say, just some advice from an old biddy to the younger generation. If it's meant to be, you'll know."

And with that, they were gone, walking faster than any of the three had ever seen an over-eighty year old walk in their lives.

"They were cute! I love old people!" beamed Daphne.

"How much time do we have left?" asked Blaise, handing Hermione her order. She took it gratefully, only now realising how hungry she was; none of them had eaten a thing since breakfast. Before taking a bite, she consulted her watch.

"Crikey, we only have twenty minutes left. We still need a girl's number, a person called Lucy and all of us with flashlights… that last one isn't going to happen so we should do a quick scout for a Lucy. Blaise, I know you don't usually but do you reckon you could get a girl's number?"

He shrugged. "Well, I guess… I haven't tried in a while, so I don't think my game will be up to much."

Daphne laughed. "Well just say it's for the hunt."

They split up and made their way slowly around the restaurant. Hermione had no joy, but Blaise grinned, and gave her a thumbs up, and the shriek of excitement she heard across the room from Daphne told her that a person named Lucy had been located.

She weaved her way in and out of the tables to where Daphne was standing and held out the camera.

"How did you know I found someone?" Daphne asked, confused.

Blaise laughed as he came up behind her. "I think everyone in the whole area knew you found something Daphne."

Hermione chuckled as Daphne took the camera and snapped a picture of her new friend Lucy.

"Thank you!" she smiled at the girl, before glancing at her watch. "Guys we have ten minutes, I think we should probably get going."

The rest of the group nodded, and together the three of them walked out of the fast food restaurant and around the corner to a place where they could apparate. Hermione tucked Draco's food, which she had somehow ended up with, inside her coat to keep it warm.

The next moment they were back in the alleyway next door to the hotel. They walked around the corner and back up the steps to the hotel, where they still had a couple of minutes until the meeting time with McGonagall.

"I'm going to go upstairs and change into something else. I feel… sticky." Hermione said, shrugging when the two Slytherins laughed at her.

"What? It's just too hot!" she laughed, as she climbed into the lift.

"Not quite as hot as you, I'd say, although excuse me if you find that a tad improper." commented a voice behind her, causing Hermione to jump.

She turned to see Jasper leaning against the lift wall, smiling crookedly at her. She smiled back, raising an eyebrow.

"Well that's a nice thing to say. Thank you."

He shrugged, "Just telling the truth. That's the best thing to do, if you're interested in someone."

Hermione felt her heart flutter slightly. "And so, you're… interested?"

"Oh, I would say that I'm extremely interested. You're an interesting girl."

"How… interesting."

They continued their subtle flirting, and exited the lift together, laughing. As they turned the corner into the corridor, Hermione found herself walking straight into a muscular, grey clad chest for the second time that day.

"Oh I'm sorry, I…" Hermione faltered as she looked up into silver grey eyes. His eyes never failed to mesmerise her, and though she cursed herself internally and willed herself to stop looking, she just couldn't.

She expected as comment, a harsh, Malfoy comment, condescending and biting, but he simply walked away.

Which in it's own way, hurt twice as much.

 **Hey guys, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed, and as always, reviews are appreciated!**

 **Please review!**

 **Also I'm still on the hunt for a beta, so please pm me!**


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